The 10 Commandments for Atheists, According to Alain de Botton

THE SYDNEY MOURNING HERALD
By Judith Woods

Alain de Botton in Melbourne Photo: Craig Abraham 

AUSTRALIA---The writer, philosopher and pillar of the Fourth Estate, Alain de Botton, has just published a set of 10 commandments for virtuous atheists. Surely the author of Religion for Atheists couldn't better Charlton Heston as Moses in Cecil B DeMille's 1956 classic, The Ten Commandments? Well, he hasn't bettered him, and nor has he attempted to capture the Biblical cadences that make the original flow satisfyingly. But here's the thing: de Botton has done a marvellous job of summing up what it is to be a nice human being. [link]

Alain de Botton's 'list for life'

1. Resilience: Keeping going even when things are looking dark. 
2. Empathy: The capacity to connect imaginatively with the sufferings and unique experiences of another person. 
3. Patience: We should grow calmer and more forgiving by being more realistic about how things actually happen. 
4. Sacrifice: We won't ever manage to raise a family, love someone else or save the planet if we don't keep up with the art of sacrifice. 
5. Politeness: Politeness is closely linked to tolerance, -the capacity to live alongside people whom one will never agree with, but at the same time, cannot avoid. 
6. Humour: Like anger, humour springs from disappointment, but it is disappointment optimally channelled. 
7. Self-awareness: To know oneself is to try not to blame others for one's troubles and moods; to have a sense of what's going on inside oneself, and what actually belongs to the world.
8. Forgiveness: It's recognising that living with others is not possible without excusing errors. 
9. Hope: Pessimism is not necessarily deep, nor optimism shallow. 
10. Confidence: Confidence is not arrogance - rather, it is based on a constant awareness of how short life is and how little we will ultimately lose from risking everything. 

The Daily Telegraph [link]