However, the idea has been condemned by Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author, as a waste of money and a contradiction of terms.

“Normally a temple is to Jesus, Mary or Buddha, but you can build a temple to anything that’s positive and good,” de Botton told The Guardian.

“That could mean a temple to love, friendship, calm or perspective. Because of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens atheism has become known as a destructive force. But there are lots of people who don’t believe but aren’t aggressive towards religions.”

Dawkins has hit back, saying: “Atheists don’t need temples/ I think there are better things to spend this kind of money on. If you are going to spend money on atheism you could improve secular education and build non-religious schools which teach rational, sceptical critical thinking.”
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P.S. Don’t give any money to this man.. give to the poor instead; Thanks!

A Windermere fortune teller, accused of stealing nearly $136,000 from a client, is now barred from telling fortunes.

Peaches Stevens, 29, was arrested Jan. 11 at her Winter Garden home and charged with stealing from a woman who answered her advertisement promising “psychic readings by Mrs. Starr.”

She is free on a $22,000 bond, but prohibited from telling fortunes until the charges are resolved.

The alleged victim, Priti Mahalanobis, said she was curious about how “Mrs. Starr” might give her insight into a relationship, so she paid $20 for a reading, then $200 for a follow-up, before draining bank accounts, a family business and a cache of jewelry.

Asked why it should be a crime to accept money from a client who willingly turned it over, Mahalanobis said, “She intended to defraud. She used lies and manipulation to continue to defraud us and made false statements also.”

“You have to understand these psychics are very good at reading people and seeing where their weaknesses are,” she said.

The Orange-Osceola state attorney charged Stevens with three felonies — scheme to defraud — after New York private investigator Bob Nygaard helped Mahalanobis by presenting affidavits to the state outlining the allegations.

Mahalanobis, who has degrees in finance and economics, said she was duped by Stevens, who claimed she could lift a seven-generation-long curse haunting Mahalanobis’ family.

“She was trying to tell me I was the originator, the cause, the source of this curse,” she said. “Therefore I was, she told me, the chosen one to release the family from the curse.”

It would take about $20,000 for each of seven tabernacles, or tent-like shrines, to snuff out each generation’s curse.

She said she turned over cash, gift cards and jewelry over an eight-month period in 2010, before she confided in family and became aware she was a victim of a crime.

The prosecution estimates the theft of gift cards, jewelry and cash totaled $135,899.

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