Steal the ideas of Buddhism’s reincarnation, Catholism’s confessions, and Islam’s pilgrimage to Mecca, and combine them however you want to create your own jumbled yet customized guidelines for navigating in today’s modern world. That’s basically the advice the writer and philosopher Alain de Botton offers in his new book Religion for Atheists.Today’s conversation around atheism is marked by a fierceness that tends to rival the celestial ideology of nutcase extremists. Usually the discussion centers around the arguments of Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens, known for their vociferous criticism of religion and confrontational approach. Enter de Botton, a gentler kind of god skeptic whose latest book exposes the gaps in religion without throwing it away, and sheds light on atheism’s shades of grey, describing it as a kind of wiki-based bricolage of our favorite ideas from various faiths.But De Botton, who since Proust Can Save Your Life and The Architecture of Happiness and various film projects, has become the modern age’s best-selling philosopher, recently stirred up his own controversy by announcing provisional plans to build a temple for atheists in the center of London. (He since backed off the idea.) I emailed him to talk about what the hell is wrong with how we talk about atheism, why religion’s good, and what modern art can learn from stained glass windows.Motherboard: What do you think is wrong with the conversation around atheism today, the conversation that’s already been popularized by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.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. So my position is perhaps unusual: I am at once very respectful and completely impious.Read the rest at Motherboard.