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<\/a><\/div>\nFollowing a link from A\u00a0Practical\u00a0Heretic<\/a>, I came across a rather bizarre portrait of religion at New Scientist<\/em>. \u00a0Kate Douglas appears to be working her way through a series titled \u201cStarting Over\u201d where she imagines how you would redesign certain institutions and conventions if you weren\u2019t limited by prior practice. \u00a0She\u2019s looked at timekeeping, toilets, and voting, and this week she turned her attention to religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n By the end of the article, she\u2019s designed a faith that Alex Knapp described<\/a> as \u201ca Unitarian Universalist church with livelier services.\u201d \u00a0It seems like a pretty disappointing pick to me, so it\u2019s worth taking a look at how she judged the worth of religion:<\/p>\n Today\u2019s religions come in four flavours<\/a>, according to Harvey Whitehouse, also at Oxford. First, the \u201csacred party\u201d, such as incense burning, bell ringing and celestial choral music in Catholicism. Second, \u201ctherapy\u201d: for example, the practices of healing and casting out devils among some evangelical Christians. Third, \u201cmystical quest\u201d, such as the Buddhist<\/a> quest for nirvana. And finally, \u201cschool\u201d: detailed study of the Koran in Islam or reading the Torah in Judaism.<\/p>\n While each appeals to a different sort of person, they all tap into basic human needs and desires, so a new world religion would have a harmonious blend of them all: the euphoria and sensual trappings of a sacred party, the sympathy and soothing balms of therapy, the mysteries and revelations of an eternal journey and the nurturing, didactic atmosphere of a school.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Those are the four most useful facets of religion? \u00a0Well, now I\u2019m really not worried about missing out. \u00a0How can you list attributes of religion without talking about it as a truth-telling thing, as Chesterton put it? \u00a0Why not talk about instilling practical wisdom?<\/p>\n