McLeish doesnt buy the argument that religion is about turning untested belief into truth. Science, he points out, also makes claims that turn out to be false
Decades ago, when I first started writing about science, I would often ask the scientist I happened to be quizzing whether he or she believed in God. (I probably started reading Richard Dawkins at about the same time). I stopped doing so quite soon, because a surprising number of distinguished researchers cheerfully volunteered that they were active Christians with a role within their churches.
I should not have been surprised. At that time, people who never normally gave religion a thought still got married in a church, sang carols at Christmas and were buried by a vicar. There were bibles in every hotel room. Many of us went to church schools, not because they were better schools but because they were there. We learned about metaphysical poets and physical chemistry and the four gospels and Charles Darwin and thought nothing of it.
Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath engendered it?
The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?