Quotable

'No one who has the temerity to speak about the broad themes to which this series of lectures is devoted, the themes of “science, religion and human experience”, can hope to hide behind an academic façade of “professional expertise”. To be sure there are matters which inevitably come up in any such lecture which can benefit from being treated with scientific or philosophical sophistication, I believe – otherwise, what am I doing here? But the big issues: to believe in God or not to believe in God; to engage in such religious practices as prayer, attending services, studying religious texts or not to do so (I am notequating this with the issue of believing or not believing in God, by the way); to look for “proof” of God’s existence, if one is religious (or thinking of being religious) or to regard such a quest as misguided; to be “pluralistic” in one’s approach to religion, or to regard one religion as “truer” than all the rest – these are deeply personal choices, choices of who to be, not just what to do or what to believe. I do not believe that philosophical or scientific discussion can provide compelling reasons for making them one way rather than another, although it can help us make whichever choices we make more reflectively. (Avi Sagi once told me that, in a still unpublished fragment of - I think it was a diary – of Kierkegaard’s, he found the words “Leap of faith – yes, but only after reflection.”)'- Hilary Putnam