ABSTRACT
I am pleased to have been provoked into thinking about atheism and
the idea of the sacred. It’s been partly an exercise in self-observation
and introspection for me. I don’t think they come much more anti-
religious than I do. I am deeply opposed, for instance, to the existence
of blasphemy laws in this country and their proposed extension. And
yet there are objects and occasions which invoke in me a profound
sense of the sacred, and I can cite other humanist scientists of whom
this is also true.
