Karl Popper
Religion and God

Popper was not a religious man in the formal sense of the word. He neither maintained any link with his Jewish ancestry nor was he an observant Lutheran. However, he did consider that every person including himself, was religious in the sense of believing in something more important and beyond us through which we can transcend ourselves. Popper called this something a Third World. In an interview that Popper gave in 1969 with the condition that it should be kept secret until after his death, he summarised his position on God as follows: "I don't know whether God exists or not (...) Some forms of atheism are arrogant and ignorant and should be rejected, but agnosticism —to admit that we don't know and to search—is all right. (...) When I look at what I call the gift of life, I feel a gratitude which is in tune with some religious ideas of God. However, the moment I even speak of it, I am embarrassed that I may do something wrong to God in talking about God." Aged fifteen, after reading Spinoza (at the suggestion of his father), Popper recounts that "it gave me a lifetime's dislike of theorizing about God".

He objected to organised religion, saying "it tends to use the name of God in vain", noting the danger of fanaticism because of religious conflicts: "The whole thing goes back to myths which, though they may have a kernel of truth, are untrue. Why then should the Jewish myth be true and the Indian and Egyptian myths not be true?"

Ethical issues always constituted an important part of the background to Popper’s philosophy. In later life he discussed ethics rarely, and religious questions hardly at all, but he sympathized with the religious stance of others, and was not prepared to endorse various “humanist and secular offensives”. For Popper religion was definitely not science, but “because something isn’t science, however, does not mean it is meaningless”.

In a letter unrelated to the interview, he stressed his tolerant attitude: "Although I am not for religion, I do think that we should show respect for anybody who believes honestly."
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