The Big Questions – God

I’ve just finished the manuscript for a book in Quercus’ The Big Questions series, the one on God.

Reading it through, I realised one of the running questions is why science seems to be encouraging new spiritual exploration and enquiry, more than undermining it. There’s the way a scientific attention to the world can develop a mode of perception that naturally provokes wonder. There’s the way science is often counterintuitive, much as many spiritual practices discern counterintuitive perceptions of reality. Or there’s the humility science can instill, which is not dissimilar to the notion that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

So, I was interested to read that the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion has just published research suggesting that 70% of scientists believe religion and science are only sometimes in conflict; that 68% of scientists surveyed consider themselves spiritual to some degree; and that non-religious scientists typically think highly of their religious colleagues.