{"id":2722,"date":"2012-01-26T10:38:56","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T15:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2722"},"modified":"2012-01-26T10:38:56","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T15:38:56","slug":"atheism-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2722","title":{"rendered":"Atheism 2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"

I rarely ever say anything negative about other atheists. The way I see it is that we are all in this fight together and we each have our own approaches to the problem. With that said, Alain de Botton\u2019s \u201cAtheism 2.0\u201d is stupid.<\/p>\n

Alain de Botton is basically the British equivalent to Greg Epstein<\/a>, but worse. Greg Epstein is the Humanist Chaplin at Harvard University and for the most part I don\u2019t have much of a problem with his approach. I don\u2019t like that he is trying to make Humanism more like the traditional theistic religions except without the God, but that\u2019s his thing. But it seems that de Botton takes it much further and the fact that he confuses atheism with humanism makes it even worse.<\/p>\n

Atheism is just a lack of belief in deities. It is not in and of itself a system of belief. Not all atheists are rational, nor do all atheists value rationality, reason, and science. These are Humanist values. While all Humanists are atheists and most atheists are Humanists, not all atheists are actually Humanists. When de Botton labeled his ultra-religious Humanism as \u201cAtheism 2.0\u201d he is confusing the already confused theists.<\/p>\n

Take for example, the recent Huffington Post article, \u201cAtheist Temple: Nonbelievers To Get Place Of ‘Worship’ In UK<\/a>.\u201d The fact is that Humanists already have meeting places so de Botton isn\u2019t doing anything new really. There are Ethical Humanist Societies all over America and much of Europe too. But by labeling it as an \u201cAtheist Temple\u201d de Botton gets people\u2019s attention. Plus, it seems like de Botton\u2019s idea of an \u201cAtheist Temple\u201d would even make most Humanists cringe.<\/p>\n

Again, while I disagree with Alain de Botton\u2019s \u201cAtheism 2.0,\u201d I would support his efforts in that I think we need to take multiple approaches to the problem of religion. However, I don\u2019t like his terminology which I think is confusing at best. For more on \u201cAtheism 2.0,\u201d check out de Botton\u2019s TED Talk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h6>\n