Religion for Atheists: Not an Original Idea

Jan 29, 2012
Francis Beswick

Comte - Fotolia: Erica Guilane-Nachez

Alain De Botton's desire to reclaim religious ritual for atheists is not new.

In his recently published book, Religion for Atheists, Alain de Botton expresses the yearning to reclaim religious ritual for atheists. It is strange that he wants to reclaim something that never was part of atheism in the first place, but not so strange that he recognises that there are positive elements to religious ritual. The basis of de Botton's belief is that aspects of organised religion, such as community singing, feast days and places of worship, have a positive social role and ought to be adopted by atheists as the focus of the life of atheistic communities.

Comte:

De Botton is a very well-educated man with a deep knowledge of philosophy, so it is surprising that he has resurrected an idea that has already failed to get off the ground. Comte, a nineteenth cenury French philosopher and the founder of the secular movement, Positivism, suggested that organised theistic religion be replaced with an atheistic religion of man. He hoped that the organisation of this new religion would be drawn from the Catholic Church, which was deeply ingrained in French life. The new secular religion would have ceremonies and a hierarchy based on Catholicism, but without the troublesome presence of God. It would replace Catholicism in French hearts and minds. Comte, of course, would be the leader of the new religion.[1]

It failed to get off the ground and only one or two small positivist associations were established, and at Comte's death only a couple of dozen friends attended his funeral.

What went wrong with Comte's idea

The problem is that you cannot graft the practices and organisation of one belief system onto another. The practices and organisation of any religious or philosophical system are an expression of its spirit, the combination of beliefs, attitudes and values of a religion. This, I believe, is also the case with its art and music. Thus when one of the atheists who enjoys Christian liturgical music listens to a sung mass, they must ask themselves why they value something in which they do not believe. They must ask what is the goodness in the belief system that they reject that has given rise to such beauty. De Botton may see the value in the rituals of organised religion, but he will be unsuccessful in grafting them onto a belief system from which they do not naturally grow.

A previous attempt at grafting

In 369-371 Julian the Apostate, the Roman emperor, tried to turn back the tide of Christianity. In his short lived persecution he tried to re-establish the old pagan faith, but attempted to transform it according to a Christian model. Pagan priests were to be teachers, like Christian priests, they were to do good works and live in organised pagan communities. None of these ideas arose naturally from the paganism of the old Roman empire [I am not speaking of modern paganism, which is a different set of beliefs.] Within two years the persecution faded and Julian was killed in battle with the Persians. A Christian succeeded him. The new paganism disappeared, as it could not sustain the organisation and ritual that Julian had tried to apply to it. The graft had failed. [2]

Reflections

While de Botton is right to recognize the importance of ritual and community to human beings, he cannot be successful in his aspirations to have an atheist version of the religious forms of them. Atheism has so far not been able to generate a genuine community comparable to religious communities and has not produced many, if any rituals. The great secular religion of communism, strongly influenced by Comte and other French positivists, had its own rituals, but they were drawn from the institutions of state, not from any religious source. But communism could not sustain itself in the end, and its rituals are no more. When the spirit fails, so fail the rituals.