Religion has at one time or another been thought to fill fourmain roles in human life: explanation, exhortation, consolation andinspiration. Historically, religion aspired to explain our ownexistence and the nature of the universe in which we find ourselves.In this role it is now completely superseded by science, and I havedealt with it in Chapter 4. By exhortation I mean moral instructionon how we ought to behave, and I covered that in Chapters 6 and7.1 have not so far done justice to consolation and inspiration, andthis final chapter will briefly deal with them.

The God Delusion On page 337 Monday, November 5, 2012 @ 1:54pm