Albert Einstein once said that although he was an atheist, he nevertheless belonged in “the ranks of devoutly religious men.” Much of the political philosopher Ronald Dworkin’s final book—published posthumously after he died in February at the age of 81—is devoted to working out what Einstein might have meant by that.
Dworkin notes that Einstein’s fellow atheist Richard Dawkins thinks the remark is “destructively misleading.” It muddies, Dawkins argues, the distinction between the scientific, “naturalist” belief that the universe is governed by fundamental physical laws, and the belief, which he takes the word “religion” to imply, that it is governed by a supernatural being.
In the first part of this book, Dworkin defends Einstein against criticisms such as this by arguing that “religion is deeper than God.” What Einstein was hinting at, he suggests, is the existence of a “religious” attitude that has manifested itself in a range of convictions and beliefs, including, though not restricted to, the belief in the existence of a supernatural being or “personal God.”
There’s a political, as well as a metaphysical, dimension to all this. For if what we call “religious freedom” applies to all “deep convictions” about the purposes of life, then we shouldn’t give up hope of one day lowering the temperature of the increasingly acrimonious battles between atheists and zealous believers.
Dworkin notes that Einstein’s fellow atheist Richard Dawkins thinks the remark is “destructively misleading.” It muddies, Dawkins argues, the distinction between the scientific, “naturalist” belief that the universe is governed by fundamental physical laws, and the belief, which he takes the word “religion” to imply, that it is governed by a supernatural being.
In the first part of this book, Dworkin defends Einstein against criticisms such as this by arguing that “religion is deeper than God.” What Einstein was hinting at, he suggests, is the existence of a “religious” attitude that has manifested itself in a range of convictions and beliefs, including, though not restricted to, the belief in the existence of a supernatural being or “personal God.”
There’s a political, as well as a metaphysical, dimension to all this. For if what we call “religious freedom” applies to all “deep convictions” about the purposes of life, then we shouldn’t give up hope of one day lowering the temperature of the increasingly acrimonious battles between atheists and zealous believers.
