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."