Yes and no, but only because it hastened an evolution in thought, added dimension and fuel to a line of reasoning and a change of heart that had already been stewing in me during the last three or four years I was an active ordained Lutheran minister. It cast something of a pall over all the years I spent telling people to keep the faith, that there was something hope-filled to hold onto. I had gotten to the point where I could no longer rightfully and honestly do that, which contributed to my decision to retire five years ago.
Then, two or three years ago, I read Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. I had seen interviews with him on The Daily Show and with Stephen Colbert, I think, and his ideas intrigued me. His delivery felt well-reasoned, and sincere. He didn’t strike me as being just another pompous skeptic.
So, rather than buying a Kindle version, which I would normally do, I bought a paperback version of the book and read it and marked it up and came away more thoroughly convinced– though still not totally convinced– that religion is a construct, a crutch. Something humans create in the absence of knowledge and evidence and explanations, a hedge against death. A God of the gaps that my seminary professors critiqued and downplayed and warned us beware.
Of the modest number of books I’ve ever read from cover to cover, this is the one that has burrowed the deepest into my psyche and given me much to think about.
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