Religion for Atheists

[Neo-Scholastic]

"Religion for Atheists" has anyone read this...

http://www.amazon.com/Religion-Atheists-...0307379108

[The Grand Nudger]

Can't say that I have. Reading the jacket notes and reviews it would seem that the author has found a similar use for religious or mythical narratives as myself, and it's also apparent the author and I prefer different narratives, and see completely dissimilar things in a given narrative.

[Epimethean]

I like some of his earlier work, so I will probably read it.

[dtango]

I like some of his earlier work, so I will probably read it.

We can then recognize that we invented religion to serve two central needs…

There goes one more wise guy who reached down to the roots of religion not by studying the history of religion but simply, and conveniently, by meditating!!

I wish you to enjoy reading!

[Epimethean]

There goes one more wise guy. Yes. Your studies have not given you any greater clarity, Santayana.

[Ace Otana]

Q: Is it possible to be a good person without religion?
A: The problem of the man without religion is that he forgets.

Complete nonsense.

[Rhizomorph13]

I get my morals from Star Wars. I try to use the force in everyday life. Sometimes my will is expressed through the force in everyday situations, like when I want my wife to kiss me I'll focus really hard at her and she will scowl and me saying, "Fucking quit it already; here I'll kiss you." PROOF that the force works! True story, by which I mean, a story I totally made up just to reinforce my snarky comment.

[Anomalocaris]

I am not inclined to take him seriously based on the brief blurb in Amazon.

The problem seems to be that he assumes what is good in religion is there because of religion, and therefore unique to religion. Consequently religion has something unique and worth learning from [/i][i]despite the fact that what religion actually intent on pushing the hardest is self-aggrandizing bullshit.

That may be true to a very limited extend for some creeds which at times value some form of self reflection over any definite pretense at cosmology. But I believe it to be essentially untrue with any larges scale religion relies on an asserted cosmology.

I would contend that in fact the only thing really unique to each religion that is based on asserted cosmology is the particular variation of the bullshit pushed solely for purpose of its own self-aggrandizement. Such things worth learning as having also been weaved into any religion is certainly not there because of religion. If anything, they are residues of common virtues overlooked by the efforts to promogate more selfaggrandizing bullshit. As such, they can be better learned outside of any religion.