// Atheist Temple: Nonbelievers To Get Place Of ‘Worship’ In UK//

isabelthespy:

so-treu:

praisethelorde:

super-eklectic1:

zorascreation:

Atheists have long criticised devout followers of faith. But now it seems Atheism is stealing from that very religious tradition by erecting a temple of worship.

Author Alain de Botton announced plans to build an Atheist temple in the U.K., reports DeZeenmagazine.

A collaboration with Tom Greenall Architects, the structure will be built in the City of London.

Dedicated to the idea of perspective, the black tower will scale 46 meters (150 ft), with each centimeterhonoring earth’s age of 4.6 billion years, notes Wired.

But a place of worship isn’t the only attribute from organized religion that Atheists can benefit from, says de Botton. In his newly released book “Religion For Atheists,” the author points to design, art and community to inspire and attract a following.

Though de Botton has yet to announce a final date for opening the temple, he hopes to create a network of such buildings across the U.K., according to BLOUIN ARTINFO.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/atheists-temple_n_1231848.html

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sooooo….?

huuuh ???

isn’t the whole point of atheism not to have a religion, because they don’t believe in god ? So what are they going to worship ? and the things that they could worship, aren’t they a form of “god” now ? 

this gives me headaches.

further proving my point that capital-a Atheists tend to have a *really* shallow understanding of god and religion.

hmm, i dunno. well, okay: i do know that capital-a Atheists tend to a) like so-treu says have a really shallow understanding of god and religion and b) be the WORST. i mean, i’m an atheist but i can’t deal with the ~New Atheists~ or whatever talking about religion at ALL because they just have no idea what they’re talking about, in the slightest, and it drives me bananas. also i don’t know anything about alain de botton at all. but! from the amazon blurb of his book at least (which is not much to go off i admit) he seems like maybe he is not like that? in a Q&A that’s quoted there he says:

A: I am an atheist, but a gentle one. I don’t feel the need to mock anyone who believes. I really disagree with the hard tone of some atheists who approach religion like a silly fairy tale. I am deeply respectful of religion, but I believe none of its supernatural aspects.

which, in the interest of full disclosure, is basically where i am. i don’t know that i would go somewhere like this, but i could see myself getting to a place in my life where i might want to. i sang in a church choir in cambridge for a few months and i actually really liked going to church, mostly because it was an episcopalian congregation, and if i did believe in the christian mythology i would so totes be an episcopalian (i went to episcopalian school for six years, it’s had more of an influence on me than i was willing for a long time to admit); i could see myself wanting that experience minus the whole part where everyone else believed in jesus/god. as for:

isn’t the whole point of atheism not to have a religion, because they don’t believe in god ? So what are they going to worship ? and the things that they could worship, aren’t they a form of “god” now ?

i mean, maybe for some atheists the point of atheism is not to have a religion. for dawkins & co. it probably is, to some extent, and once again, they are the worst. glancing at the reblogs for this a couple atheists on tumblr also view it this way, which, cool. for me there isn’t really a point to it; it’s just a thing that is. i tried, very hard and for many years, to believe in god; i don’t. it was really difficult for me to accept that about myself, which i emphasize to make clear that for me being an atheist is not about any kind of statement or relationship/lack of relationship with religion. it was hard again to make the next leap and realize that the idea of — i don’t know that i would describe myself as worshipping anything, but the idea of faith, maybe, is a more complicated one than it is generally made out to be. i do have faith, in various things. the things i have faith are not my version of god, because i don’t have have a version of god, because i don’t believe god exists. i feel like i’m being kind of circular but i don’t know how to clarify further.

I get why he would want to take religion’s cultural connections & community for his own, and I think that’s okay, but I think that a 46 metre tall building is a really douchey way to do that. Like, it’s not so tall, but having specially constructed buildings etc sounds just off to me.