From the author of The Consolations of Philosophy, a deeply provocative and useful argument about how we can benefit from the wisdom and power of religionmdash;without having to "believe" in any of it.Debates about religion have been hugely and in some ways boringly polarized in recent years: On the one side are those who argue that religion should be our sole source of truth and insight. And on the other side are those who propose (with equal intransigence) that religion is childish nonsense and should be discarded by all right-thinking people.Into this increasingly sterile debate Alain de Botton now launches a revolutionary argument. He starts with a bold proposal: let"s imagine that God doesn"t exist, and yet that religion nevertheless has a lot to teach us. Why do we feel the need to choose between committing to belief in immaterial deities or letting go entirely of the consoling rituals and practices that belief carries with it and for which there is no equivalent in secular society? De Botton suggests that we separate meaningful ideas and practices from the superstitious framework in which religious institutions often embed them. He shows us what secular society can learn from religions in a range of areas, from education to art, travel to hostelry. In this dazzling work, Alain de Botton arguesmdash;with his singular, often startling persuasivenessmdash;that our soul-related needs can be freed from the particular influence of religions, even as, paradoxically, the study of religion will allow us to rediscover and rearticulate those needs.