How do we have better relationships? Atheist philosopher Alain de Botton is critical of the notion, popular today, that claims that people are basically good and ‘angelic by nature’ because he says that this view of people is ‘highly troubling for relationships’.
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Instead, surprisingly, he speaks positively about the Christian idea of the sinfulness of each person. He says, It’s far better to insist that all of us in various ways are … deeply crazy.
“We are all warped, distorted in very distinctive ways.”
This is a fundamental piece of knowledge which we should be taking with us into relationships with a big warning sign over us. In his idiosyncratic way, de Botton suggests that the Christian view of seeing everyone as ‘crazy’ – or sinful – will actually help us have better expectations in our relationships.
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