Richard Dawkins once wrote, “Science is interesting, and if you don’t agree, you can f** off.”* It’s one of his more famously blunt remarks—but behind it lies a profound idea: that science is not only a method for understanding the world, but a worthy replacement for the myths we’ve outgrown.
For centuries, religion answered the big questions: Why are we here?, What happens when we die?, What is our purpose? But now, science can offer its own answers—often less comforting, but far more honest.
Dawkins argues that evolutionary biology, astrophysics, and neuroscience don’t just explain the mechanics of life—they inspire awe. He writes in Unweaving the Rainbow, “The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable.”
But here lies the dilemma: Can rational wonder replace spiritual comfort?
For some, the silence of the cosmos feels cold without a god behind it. For others, it’s liberating—an opportunity to construct meaning for ourselves, not inherit it from ancient texts.
We need not diminish what science is in order to appreciate what religion once offered. We only need to realise they serve different ends: one explains reality; the other consoles. The challenge—and opportunity—is to build a worldview that does both, using reason, empathy, and imagination.
As Dawkins said in The God Delusion:
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”