Mark Vernon

Or I found myself turning my back on the spirituality that is represented in great religious music and architecture. I did not take it seriously simply because it might imply I was letting religion in again, through the back door.

Then there were the arguments for and against the existence of God. I'd read them all, and came to think that there is no knock-out blow one way or the other. Anyway, proofs never persuade anyone to change their mind. They just bolster the opinions of those whose minds are made up already.

To put it another way, I had become an agnostic. But not just a shrug-of-the-shoulders agnostic. This agnosticism felt more passionate than that. I wanted to ask the big questions, develop a spirituality. I was committed to the search.

It is such a passionate agnosticism that sees science as inspired by wonder, nurturing a piety towards the natural world.


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