Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious

The choice to practice a faith is “not only socially or psychologically desirable but an entirely reasonable perspective on the nature of reality,” according to this stimulating if flawed treatise. Countering the notion of religion as a thoughtless surrender to the supernatural, New York Times opinion columnist Douthat (The Decadent Society) argues for a faith rooted in science, writing that the universe is “made for us” (the big bang theory suggests the existence of an intentional God who created the universe at a specific moment, according to Douthat), that human consciousness is “improbably fine-tuned” to appreciate cosmic intricacies, and that “spiritual and supernatural” phenomena stubbornly persist in an age of supposed disenchantment. Those arguments are unpacked in rich scientific detail, with an especially illuminating discussion of human consciousness as an “irreducible” mystery whose mechanics 500-odd years of scientific research have failed to account for. Later chapters are less persuasive, however, with Douthat attempting to answer the question of how evil can exist in the world given God’s goodness and omnipotence largely by positing that divine choices surpass human understanding. Elsewhere, he suggests that believers might seek out “a major world religion” partly because those faiths “triumphed over primeval belief systems for a reason,” without noting the role played by military campaigns aimed at exterminating rival faiths. This is unlikely to change minds. (Feb.)