Why Charles Murray Is Taking Religion Seriously

Taking Religion Seriously is Charles Murray's most recent book. Although the world-famous political scientist has published books outside of his usual genre such as his eminently enjoyable 2014 book The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead, his latest work represents something quite unique. As he acknowledges early on, like many outwardly successful people living in the modern West, he lived most of his life not as an explicit atheist or even as an agnostic but as someone who felt little need even to pause to consider religion. As he writes, "I had distracted myself with Western modernity. I am using Western modernity as shorthand for all the ways in which life in the last hundred years has shielded many of us from the agonizing losses, pains, and sorrows that were part of human life since the dawn of humankind."

It was through gradually beginning to attend Quaker meetings with his wife, Catherine, that Murray began to think to himself: Perhaps these religiously minded people have something valuable to teach. From there, Murray began an intensive reading regimen engaging with authors both supportive and critical of his newfound appreciation for, first, theism and, later, Christianity. Taking Religion Seriously is hardly polemical and instead aims to chronicle how he, a skeptically minded modern person, has been engaging with these questions. Murray has taken a particular interest in both near-death experiences and terminal lucidity, the latter of which prompted a back-and-forth with cognitive scientist Steven Pinker.

In this conversation with Merion West editor-in-chief Erich J. Prince, Murray discusses the problem of evil; how certain critics of religion have arguably constructed a false dichotomy between religion and science; the Big Bang as evidence of creation; and the rediscovery of religion arguably underway in many parts of the West today.