So, I wanted to start a thread about Alain de Botton...

[Pappa]

...and how I think his comments about "Atheist churches" were taken completely out of context and widely misunderstood and maligned. But... I'm tired and can't be arsed to find quotes 'n links 'n shit.

A few months ago I read an article (or maybe interview) about/with him in the Scientific American Mind. He was talking about a future where disbelief in god was the norm, and that simply ditching religion leaves some gaps that religion currently serves. The examples I can remember were things like having walk-in counsellors on the High Street that would take the place that confessionals and prayer currently fill. His "atheist churches" remark was, I think, mostly about community. Places like this may be an exception, as in general "atheist communities" offline are few and far between, though Sceptics in the Pub is a good example of that niche being filled. Perhaps his concerns are irrelevant. If the UK is anything to go by, a nation can be almost completely non-religious in almost all practical senses, yet nobody seems to be suffering that greatly from lack of community, other than the ongoing trend away from knowing your neighbours.... but I think the "nuclear family" and our affluence may have more to do with that than anything else.

Anyway.... I'm digressing. My point was that I think de Botton was castigated without ever really being understood in context.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Sound bytes rule the world.

[Rum]

Sound bytes rule the world.

Quite.

[Trinity]

Actually Pappa, I want to respond not to the OP but to your comment about nobody suffering that greatly from lack of community, (not religious community and if this is what you meant then I'll shut up now!!) I think you're wrong about that, but like you I'm tired, just about to eat etc but I've bookmarked this to respond fully later. Although with regard to the OP, it's an interesting one and I agree that Mr de Botton's words have been misconstrued.

[HomerJay]

Alain de Bottom

or more accurately

Alain de Front-Bottom .

pappa, the guy's a cunt, a psuedo-intellectual of the worst kind. fortune cookies have greater depth and you'd learn more reading the entrails of road kill than you'd learn reading or listening to his fanny burps.

we already have countless types of community services, it's just that they're not so visible because they're not out touting for members.

save your energy for something worth thinking about.

[Trinity]

Alain de Bottom

or more accurately

Alain de Front-Bottom .

pappa, the guy's a cunt, a psuedo-intellectual of the worst kind. fortune cookies have greater depth and you'd learn more reading the entrails of road kill than you'd learn reading or listening to his fanny burps.

we already have countless types of community services, it's just that they're not so visible because they're not out touting for members.

save your energy for something worth thinking about.

that is beside the point. You don't have to like somebody or to agree with them to observe that they may have been misunderstood or maligned.

[tattuchu]

So my mother just asked me if I've ever heard of this Alain de Bottom fellow and his School of Life. What do you reckon?

[Rum]

So my mother just asked me if I've ever heard of this Alain de Bottom fellow and his School of Life. What do you reckon?

I dunno - have you?

[Svartalf]

never heard of him... Neither the French nor English wiki pages are too informative either, though the French one is shockingly short and uninteresting... I'd say it was a half assed job from his comm agency.

[tattuchu]

So my mother just asked me if I've ever heard of this Alain de Bottom fellow and his School of Life. What do you reckon?

I dunno - have you?

No

[Cormac]

I saw him on telly doing the rounds of the interview circuit, and he never disabused anyone of the notion that he was actively promoting an atheist religion.