PZ has beaten me to it :
Probably the most boring question you can ask about religion is whether or not the whole thing is “true.” Unfortunately, recent public discussions on religion have focused obsessively on precisely this issue, with a hardcore group of fanatical believers pitting themselves against an equally small band of fanatical atheists.
Fuck you very much, Alain de Botton.
He might find the question boring, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s central and important. Are we to live in a society that values truth, or one run by idiots like de Botton, who think the truth is irrelevant, in which we are governed by and our children taught by people who promote falsehoods? Who live their entire lives guided entirely by disproven myths and falsehoods, and evangelize that nonsense intensely?
Yes indeed, truth matters. Really, it should be the only thing that matters, all things considered. I think de Botton is overrated as a philosopher and as an atheist, he’s most often wrong, and desperately trying to be the William Lane Craig of atheism. But we have got him figured out, I’m afraid. Just an opportunist hot air balloon operator who is trying to sell as many early morning flights as possible, while sunrise balloon trips are still en vogue, and he’s strictly a good-weather operator too, no flights in the rain, no flights if it upsets the locals, and if his competitors have a better sales pitch, he’ll gladly assimilate it into his own business.
Let’s dismiss him as a flea. An irrelevant one at that. No rock star here, move along.
