Why We Need Religion

The author is a professor of philosophy at Columbia College in Chicago who has also been a visiting professor at the Buddhist Institute in Cambodia. The book is subtitled 'an agnostic celebration of spiritual emotions' and is partly a response to the exclusively cognitive focus of many new atheist writers and the fact that science does not directly address our emotional lives. The author confesses that he used to write in this vein himself, for instance in Skeptical Inquirer, and one sees the residue of this position in his dismissal of any metaphysical notion of the soul, preferring instead to speak of 'soul talk' in metaphorical terms. Anatomically, emotions are represented by the limbic system, and the heart of the book is that religion helps people manage their emotional lives and may have a therapeutic function – we all appreciate the importance of how we feel emotionally. Thus he takes a broadly functionalist approach to religion, mentioning in passing the 'fictionalist' stance of pretending things are true for social reasons (religion can also be important as a social glue).

A series of chapters discuss a range of emotions and human challenges: sorrow, death and emotional management; forgiveness, shame and guilt; mental training for peace, resilience and sacrifice; ecstasy joy and play; and finally managing fear and rage. The author brings in a Buddhist perspective on a number of occasions, for example relating to impermanence and death. Religion has an adaptive function in relation to managing emotions, although it can also have a repressive function, as in sexuality. In the final chapter on fear and rage, he argues that religious and extremist terrorism are due mainly to resentment rather than religion per se, and that many religions also promote tolerance and humanism. This is a refreshing interdisciplinary take on an important issue.