To coincide with the release of this book, de Botton has proposed that a series of atheist temples be built around the UK, so that his fellow non-believers can “have their own versions of the great churches and cathedrals”. The idea has not been well received. My favourite comment on the Guardian article online outlining the scheme reads “what exactly do I need a temple for? I already have a place to express my nihilism and to feel superior to my religious friends. It’s called the pub”.

Religion for Atheists suffers from the same conceptual flaws as this argument. An exploration of ‘religion-based’ concepts like community and tenderness – which could “usefully” enrich secular life – is an obviously precarious premise, which, as de Botton admits, is likely to offend those on both sides of the debate.

Whatever one thinks of what he says, de Botton does say it very well, interweaving moments of wry wit with incisive observations. However I won’t patronise de Botton in the same way that he patronises religion, commending its “intermittent” positives from a pedestal of barely concealed distain.

Overall, the book does not work: chiefly because it is based upon a narrow conception of religion and atheism as two fundamentally opposed camps who ‘steal’ one another’s ideas and will not share. In reality, very few atheists would take have a problem with celebrating the beauty of a religious painting or building, and very few believers would run at them screaming ‘hypocrite’ if they did.

The problem with the temples-for-atheists project is that although interesting, it is fundamentally unnecessary. The same could well be said of Religion for Atheists, the secular temple’s holy text.

Hamish Hamilton, £18.99, hardback