Steven Weinberg has a good essay in NYRB titled Without God. It starts with a historical review of the ever-evolving tension between science and religion and then goes on to speculate about what life might be like if/when religious belief dies out. This excerpt gives some of the flavor:
It is not my purpose here to argue that the decline of religious belief is a good thing (although I think it is), or to try to talk anyone out of their religion, as eloquent recent books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens have. So far in my life, in arguing for spending more money on scientific research and higher education, or against spending on ballistic missile defense or sending people to Mars, I think I have achieved a perfect record of never having changed anyone's mind. Rather, I want just to offer a few opinions, on the basis of no expertise whatever, for those who have already lost their religious beliefs, or who may be losing them, or fear that they will lose their beliefs, about how it is possible to live without God.
(h/t: Andrew Sullivan)
2 comments:
Good reading! I wonder what prompted Weinberg to write this. I only disagree in one point, he says it's difficult to live without God... Not at all. I think for me it would be difficult to live with God. I wouldn't know how that feels...
Some of my favorite people in the world are former evangelicals. Hell, I'm a former evangelical. As such I can tell you that going from a clear-cut worldview where everything makes sense if you just hammer the pegs into the holes hard enough isn't easy. But it is rewarding. The ability to say "I don't know" is well worth whatever difficulty attends its cultivation.
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