Taking Religion Seriously

by Charles Murray

"Millions are like me when it comes to well-educated and successful people for whom religion has been irrelevant,” Charles Murray writes. “For them, I think I have a story worth telling.” Taking Religion Seriously is Murray’s autobiographical account of a decades-long evolution in his stance toward the idea of God in general and Christianity specifically. He argues that religion is something that can be approached as an intellectual exercise. His account moves from the improbable physics of the Big Bang to recent discoveries about the nature of consciousness; from evolutionary psychology to hypotheses about a universal Moral Law. His exploration of Christianity delves into the authorship of the Gospels, the reliability of the texts that survive, and the scholarship surrounding the Resurrection story. 
Murray, the author of Coming Apart and coauthor of The Bell Curve, does not write as an expert. “If you are taking religion seriously for the first time, you face the same problem I We are forced to decide what we make of a wide variety of topics that we do not have the option of mastering.” He offers his personal example of how the process works. “Maybe God needs a way to reach over-educated agnostics and that’s what I stumbled into,” he writes. “It’s a more arid process than divine revelation but it has been rewarding. And, if you’re like me, it’s the only game in town.”"

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Christianity, Biography, Philosophy, Audiobook, Theology

185 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2025

About the author

Charles Alan Murray is an American libertarian conservative political scientist, author, and columnist. His book Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980 (1984), which discussed the American welfare system, was widely read and discussed, and influenced subsequent government policy. He became well-known for his controversial book The Bell Curve (1994), written with Richard Herrnstein, in which he argues that intelligence is a better predictor than parental socio-economic status or education level of many individual outcomes including income, job performance, pregnancy out of wedlock, and crime, and that social welfare programs and education efforts to improve social outcomes for the disadvantaged are largely wasted.

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I urge upon you that religion is something that should be taken seriously by nonbelievers and that can be taken seriously in the same way that Chinese history or plate tectonics can be taken seriously.

Inquiries of a mature agnostic into religion in general and Christianity in particular. Murray writes simply and explores both how he adopted the prevailing anti-religion worldview and what released him from it. Addresses much modern “received knowledge” of religion as inconsistent with current science and scholarship.

Any God worthy of the name is at least as incomprehensible to a human being as I am to my dog. My dog is smart enough to perceive a few things about me … but these understandings represent only a few trivial aspects of who I am. I am not invisible to my dog, just as God is not invisible to me, but I am nonetheless unknowable to my dog in any meaningful sense. God is just as unknowable to me.

What initially seems like a detour into trivia (the Shroud of Turin controversy) exemplifies where bad science fed the accepted knowledge (that, for example, the shroud was a medieval hoax) which isn’t even close to current scholarship on the subject.

But accepting that we live in an intentional universe is tantamount to acknowledging the existence of a God for whom the concept of intention applies.

More relevant is Murray’s investigation of the trustworthiness and age of the Biblical accounts of Jesus’ ministry and resurrection. He debunks not only what “everybody knows” but also pseudo-scholarly sources like the Jesus Seminar. Sidebars provide annotated bibliographies of sources for deeper study.

Our impulses to “do the right thing” are God’s way of revealing himself to us, and what God has revealed is the pervasive role of agape in living a good human life.

Like C S Lewis, Murray writes as a layman for agnostics and atheists. Therefore, not surprisingly, refers to few Christian authorities or sources after the first or second century (except Lewis). The Christian apologetics industry tends toward Christians writing for Christians. Murray admits his journey is not finished, comparable to Lewis’s having attained belief in God but still struggling over the nature of Jesus. Readers disinclined to accept his conclusions will nonetheless be challenged to consider for themselves whether they should take religion more seriously.

My haphazard pilgrimage has already led me to believe that I live in a universe made meaningful by love and grace. That’s a lot.

[Steven]

This is an admittedly strange evidentialist apologetics book / memoir

I knew that Charles Murray had made some kind of progress on this front, but was stuck since he wasn't really being swayed by what he had around him.

At times it feels like he's burying the lede, which I think is a consequence of the chronological organization. There was a long run-up in his life to the transition that he's still in the process of making, so that could explain that lopsidedness. You can see the incompleteness of his conversion when he says things that would imply Origenism (pre-existence of souls). He also might have an issue with the concept of kenosis in Christology. The Seeds of Truth bit at the end also comes across as perennialist. Work in progress.

While he chose his battles well, aside from ESP, this is bound to get the response all evidentialist works get from unsympathetic audiences. Hans Eysenck said that watching two different paradigms debate was like "watching a man chasing a squirrel around a pole". Both sides either have ways of interpreting the same evidence, or will hold out for future ways to accommodate it within their views. no scientist ever catches the underdetermination of data squirrel.

This is one of the reasons that once I understood presuppositional apologetics, I got intellectually convinced. But, philosophy isn't Charles Murray's job. His approach makes sense given who he is. The major win from his evidentialist presentation is that: so much of what we've been convinced of today is just lies. This was important for me, as well. I learned that nobody who convinced me to deny religion is anyone who I'd ever trust again. many even had group interests in lying to me, in particular.

if you've been reading Charles Murray for years, I'd give this a chance. he's taken on gigantic risks to break people away from lies, and we owe him.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to this on audio book and enjoyed it. I am not an academic nor am I a science or research orientated person. I was also raised in a devout family and never really fully disconnected from my faith (although my theological approach is radically different than it was when I was younger but that is another story as they say). So I am not really approaching these issues from the same perspective as Murray but I am aware of the issues and can relate to them in many ways.

The book is basically an explanation of how Murray found himself wrestling with faith and religious belief and how he worked out the issues ranging from belief in God to materialism and ultimately the basic claims of Christianity. If you approach these issues with a focus on evidence, data, logic, etc. Murray lays out a case for belief. He does not claim to prove anything per se but rather argues that there is a great deal more compelling evidence on the side of religion than many think if they are soaked in the materialist and agnostic worldview of intellectualism and academia.

Even if you don't agree with his conclusions it is any interesting exercise to read or listen to an intelligent and curious lay person walk through what he found and the conclusions he draws. The anthropomorphic principle is probably something most people are aware of but near death experiences and terminal lucidity are less well know and thus more interesting; at least to me. The case for earlier dating of the gospels, his discussion of the resurrection, and of Jesus in general are also fascinating. Again, just to hear short, accessible and honest discussion of these issues from an intelligent and evidenced focused but non-expert.

Murray claims to lack to the needed sensitivity to religious connection, the "God gene" so this is not emotional connection or spiritual revelation but intellectual exploration of the evidence and its ramifications. If you have an interest in these questions I think you will find this book enjoyable and thought provoking.

Murray reads the audiobook and this makes it something like a conversation with a smart friend. No dogmatism or preaching just an exploration of the questions and the arguments of those who have studied these questions. Murray offers further reading for anyone who wants to review the sources and decided for themselves.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, this was a surprise. I had read two of Charles Murray's books and found them to be meticulously data-driven and thoughtfully crafted. I have heard several interviews and this gave me the impression that he is a very measured, self-aware person with a very scientific mode of thinking. Alas, this books proves that Charles Murray can make some of the most fundamental, elementary mistakes in simple logic. The idea that "I can't fathom this" becomes "there must be a God" is so old that it doesn't need repeating why this is such a shallow, thoughtless, and lazy way of thinking. I am appalled and sorely disappointed, since I was hoping for something persuasive. This book is not the least bit persuasive, and unfortunately serves to undermine the reputation of an intellectual that already has major headwinds with reputation for reasons having to do with motivated reasoning on the part of his critics. I would have advised Murray to keep this book off the commercial market and just share it with his family and friends.

[Richelle Moral Government · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mind acts similarly to his so I related with this a lot. I think a lot of people are coming to the same conclusions, that religion should be taken seriously and not just thrown out as an anachronism. For me, Jordan Peterson had a lot of influence on my change of mind on that matter. This book goes over his thinking on the matter and how it changed over time and why. And gets into the arguments that influenced him. It is not a deep theological study of biblical text, but a broad consideration of the evidence for the supernatural, the argument for Christianity and why he has grown to favor it even though he’s not sure on the finer theological points.

[AttackGirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

another intimate share

Charles once again discusses the sensitive topics with revealing venerability. Perhaps stats on how many return to their original religion as time moves closer.

[Glen Asbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tremendously insightful and a quick read, to boot. Murray is one of the most intelligent and influential living American public intellectuals.

[lars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seldom do the dispassionate faithless hear apologetics in a language they can understand. This is one of those rare opportunities to hear a compelling case for faith made in language candid and dispassionate enough to slip past our faith-tone-deaf ears. I'm grateful Murray decided to tackle something like this, he can speak to an audience that is difficult for most others to reach. Thank you for shaking my faithlessness.

[Paul Sand · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a Charles Murray fan for quite awhile. He's well-known for his takes on controversial issues, like IQ, race, welfare, etc. He presses a lot of hot buttons. I really liked his In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government, a succinct description of the "proper" role of the state. Specifically, limited and laissez-faire, enabling people to chart their own courses in life, bearing responsibility for their own choices, good and bad.

This book is somewhat of a surprise topic, and very personal. Murray details his spiritual odyssey over the past years, how he became interested in, and finally persuaded by, evidence that we are more than just bags of molecules interacting according to the dictates of physics and biochemistry. And how he came around to a more-or-less Christian belief in God, Jesus, and miracles, including the resurrection.

So, yeah, that's a lot for a relatively short book. But Murray's argument is well-presented, not didactic at all. He lays out his research, all the while inviting his readers to make up their own minds. His initial discussion is very similar to that of Ross Douthat in his recent book Believe: the "fine-tuning" of a universe that makes stars, planets, life, and (most unlikely of all) human intelligence possible. Murray makes the additional point about trying to "understand" God: we are likely in the same relationship between my dog and calculus. We not only don't understand, we don't even understand what there is to understand.

Murray is impressed, as Douthat was, with the uniformity of "near death experiences", where people who have been brought back from the brink report uncannily similar observations of what it's like. Murray adds in the phenomenon of "terminal lucidity", where dying people thought to be irretrievably comatose have recovered briefly, but inexplicably, to communicate with people at their bedside. This, after their brains have stopped working!

In the book's second part, Murray looks specifically at Christianity, with an appreciation of the arguments made by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity. He notes the effort made over the years to debunk the history depicted in the New Testament; he counters with his own scholars and their arguments. (If you are refuting a debunker are you ‥ a bunker?)

Bottom line: Murray makes good arguments. I'm not planning to become a churchgoer (again), though. That's on me, not him.

If you're interested. Murray's book has generated some pushback from people I also like. Jerry Coyne, bless his heart, seems to take any religiosity as a personal insult, and argued against his views here and here.

Steven Pinker, peace be unto him, also dislikes Murray's "terminal lucidity" explanation, and wrote a letter to the WSJ about it. Murray responded here. (I think those are both free links.)

[Drtaxsacto · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Charles Murray first collaborated on the BELL CURVE, the book generated a lot of controversy - it argued that the measurement of intelligence (in broad categories) varied among races. Note, when geneticists argue that the presence of other genetic factors such as fast twitch muscle fibers, that is not sensitive. But because this offered some hypotheses about intelligence - the book brought out a firestorm. Similarly when he wrote in COMMON GROUND, which argued that welfare policy had not been successful opponents on the left criticized the conclusions. For almost four decades I have read each new Murray book with a) a critical eye (the clarity of a definition on race is not as once clear as it had been in the past) and interest.

SO when I found that Murray had published a short book on why we should take religion seriously, I looked forward to reading it. Murray attempts to answer a series of questions - 1) Is the biblical version of the creation of the world as explanatory as the big bang theory? 2) Is the story of Jesus' birth plausible? 3) Is there some reason to believe in an after life? 4) is there a separate entity that is separate from our physical manifestation (do human's have souls)? 5) Are the major religions (he does not mention Islam - but he mentions all of the other Abrahamic religions make a contribution to the quality of life? I was interested in reading more. The simple response on this book is that it makes a compelling positive response to all five questions. This book makes a real contribution to each area in a compelling manner.

One of the qualities which I admire in Murray's writing is that he clearly demarcates when his conclusions are tentative and when they are not. A second is he is quite open about his sources.

I found his arguments compelling. Why are they? For me there are a couple of reasons - first is Pascal's wager - where he argued that the potential benefits of belief (eternal happiness) outweigh the finite losses incurred by living a religious life if God does not exist. Essentially, if you believe and God exists, you gain everything; if you don't believe and God exists, you risk losing everything. Second, the benefits of believing help organize the rest of your life in quite useful ways.

The book is short but you may want to spend some time thinking about each of his arguments.

[mark propp · Rating 5 out of 5]

i'm giving this a 5 because it was such a relief & really a joy to read murray's book after getting through the slog that was ross douthat's. i like douthat. seems like a perfectly lovely guy. but criminy i found that book to be a chore.

murray has many gifts, annoyingly, and the one i can appreciate the most is that he is a terrific writer. even when he's taking on serious, weighty stuff in coming apart or his mincome book, he's almost always comprehensible & understandable for the midweight iq type.

& this one is no different. i inhaled it, i understood it, when i was reading it i was happy to be in the world of the book, didn't want to put it down. great.

unfortunately i think he's making bad arguments here. he's stated that this isn't an intelligent design or 'god of the gaps' book, but that's pretty much how most of it read to me.

& while ndes & terminal lucidity cases are interesting & fun to read about & speculate over, i think we are a long long way from them being usable as evidence of minds separate from the brain. there are explanations, some of them that have been presented on twitter in the past few days, that seem to offer pretty plausible explanations for the tl cases.

i think the nde & tl cases are much like ufo talk: most of them are explainable by real world things. some of them are truly mysterious, but the fact that they're mysterious doesn't mean we should accept that they are evidence for aliens or a separate consciousness. you need real evidence for that.

i wish he'd written a book about the cultural need for religion. that feels like it could have been a natural successor to coming apart.

ultimately i think this is a good, fun, readable book about a bad topic. mostly. i do think i got some things out of it. the notion of people having religious sensitivity similar to iq is something i've thought about but never put into concrete detail the way murray does here. i'm glad i read it. but i can't see ever coming back to it the way i have re-read coming apart & facing reality.

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Murray, while raised in a Presbyterian church in Newton Iowa back in the 1940s and '50s, lost whatever faith he had while in college, becoming an agnostic. Later in life, after marrying his wife Catherine, who found a Quaker meeting that she started attending, and he went with her, while remaining agnostic. This book is his story of how he has come to faith. The first part of the book deals with the advances of science in recent years - quantum physics, the implications of the "Big Bang" theory, the experiences of "near death experiences" (NDE) and "Terminal Lucidity" (where people who have been suffering dementia just before they die become briefly lucid) etc. and why they do not favor a materialistic philosophy. And a lot more.

The second part of the book deals with more specifically Christian perspectives. He discusses C.S. Lewis' concept of the moral law and why it is important. He discusses the origins of the gospels and why he accepts the arguments that they were all written before 70 CE (i.e. before the fall of Jerusalem and the Roman destruction of the Jewish Temple), and so they were basically eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life and teachings. Also of his resurrection, which he discusses. And why those scholars who have in the past argued that the gospels and other New Testament writings were heavily edited, with lots of fabrications added, are just wrong.

Throughout, he includes sidebars listing more books for reading on the subjects he is discussing.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has questions about religion, whether you are or aren't a believer. There is a lot here to think about.

[Daniel Kolb · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a pretty good introduction to quite an array of perpectives on God and later in the book, Christianity. The strength of the book is in the fact that it comes from a perspective of a scientific modernistic man that finds himself challenged by ideas and perspectives that he has long dismissed but importantly never critically evaluated until now late in his life. Critical thinking it turns out does not apply to just Materialist thinking but all arguments can be explored and judged on their merits. This is a objectively good and laudable thing the author is doing and he takes the time to point out perspectives that mirror his consensus as well as those that challenge it.
By being taken 'seriously' the author finds in these ideas more substance and salience than his previous admitted surface level of understanding would have otherwise allowed. This book is especially insightful for those who do not have high affinity for spiritual or symbolic/psychological ideas but have a strong affinity for scientific/mathmatical thinking.

It has a few nuggets for those who are more spiritually attuned than the author as well. For instance one of the books mentioned is called Just Six Numbers which was not a book I was familiar with but was very interesting to be introduced to. I like that the author goes some pretty unexpected places when he talks about NDEs and ESP. I didn't find his arguments for them too persuasive but I really do respect his open-mindedness in even daring to till in that kind of field. The strength of the book is that it does in fact "Take Religion Seriously"

The weakness of the book is that there is very little analysis or engagement from the author with these ideas therein.
I feel like in someways the book is more derivative of others works than the author putting forward any new ground in these areas. I don't mean to say that the entire book is "hey check out what this other book I read is saying" but in essence this is in fact mainly what it is.

I would have liked to see more dialogue with these ideas instead of simply restating what the books are about. The author explains his bonafides in the academic and professional world, and he apparently has authored all of these controversial studies, yet here he scurries into the wheat fields like a timid mouse and says he's no expert and he's just a layman. Therefore the ultimate effect is that the author does a good job of showing why one should take religion seriously but a poor job of explaining why one should take him seriously.

This book could be a good 'signpost' for others to read these other works he references but the literary value is superficial for the above reasons.

Update: I'll revise up a star after reading the final portion of the book where the author does actually put together an argument in regards to the Historicity of the Gospels. He definitely chooses his spots but I will say he does actually finally present his own argument at the end.

[Mitchell H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short 3 hour read on the author's path from agnostic to Christian - which closely followed my own - which uses reason and observation rather than pure faith or blind acceptance of the Bible to get to God.

One difference from me is his use of "psy-x" (near death experiences and similar) as a form of proof, which is not an area I agree with, but still found the chapter interesting, and he provides back-up reading material on both sides of the argument for the reader to pursue.

His chapter on Christianity itself was a bit rushed, but basically he recommends just going to C.S. Lewis "Mere Christianity" to get into more detail as Lewis too took the path from agnosticism to Christianity.

Recommend for a quick read.

[Jeff Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an agnostic I was hoping to find some compelling arguments for the existence of God and the validity of the Christian faith. I'm always open to new points of view on the matter. For the most part the author's points are the same ones I've been hearing all my life. I just don't come to the same conclusions that people of faith do when I hear the facts that apparently convince them. The book did have some information that was new to me. For instance I didn't know that there is some evidence that the gospel according to Mark was written by a disciple of Peter. According to this theory Mark never met Jesus but he was documenting the experiences and memories of the Apostle Peter. The book is well written and interesting to read but, in the end, unconvincing to me.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Courageous, personal, thoughtful

Charles Murray is bold to share his religious journey. He anticipates many of my own personal questions and the answers he has found through study. That said, I feel some of his leaps of faith are leaps, unsupported by arguments or data. His assumption that God has an intention seems to me to be a case of anthropomorphizing, a practice he disavows. He clearly founds his faith on an even more fundamental faith in human reason, or perhaps he feels reason transcends humanity. Well worth reading.

[Dave Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nice look at how one man was pulled out of his funk about God looking at things intellectually, tapping into greats like C.S. Lewis and others who caused him to think and ask questions, which then lead him to "Talking Religion Seriously." While I have given this a five star, I wish he would have included his wife (Catherine) a bit more. While Murray gives her credit, at the end of the book...I bet being a strong Christian...she had been praying for him for years. Very nice and easy reading. Thank your Mr. Murray!

[Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed reading this new book by Charles Murray. He grew up Presbyterian but abandoned religious faith in college. After years as an agnostic, Murray slowly made his way back to a belief in God. Scientific discoveries, studies of terminal lucidity and near-death experiences, C.S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity, studying the New Testament, and meeting with family and friends discussing God brought him back to a belief in God/Jesus. Does the author claim to understand it all? No. But, he is grateful for what he has come to understand in his "haphazard pilgrimage."

[Derek Ouyang · Rating 1 out of 5]

Taking "Taking Religion Seriously" seriously, I have to conclude that Charles Murray has been right a couple times before, but has now revealed himself to be a broken clock of an intellectual. The craziest passage in here takes his infamous bell curve (which I'm actually much more charitable to than average) and uses it to basically argue that six-sigma healers are scientifically plausible -- i.e., Jesus.

[Judith Miracle · Rating 5 out of 5]

thoughtful

I appreciated the author’s insight as he journeyed through his questions. Have never read another account with as much detail and honesty. Grace has entered his life and it’s a hopeful attitude for us readers to contemplate. Much of the scientific jargon was over my head but it was helpful to see how it was necessary for his personal journey.

[Janette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thought-provoking as I have found myself in a similar situation with regard to faith and religion (never had a "moved by the Spirit" moment). I wasn't totally sure where Murray was going at times, but he got there. I will definitely be reading this again soon and a couple of the other authors he referenced in the book.

[HKMar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taking Religion Seriously by Charles Murray is a book that truly lives up to its title. No matter where you fall: atheist, agnostic, or deeply religious; there’s something here for you. It’s research heavy and thoughtful, with an ending that’s surprisingly honest and intriguing. I liked it so much I’m buying extra copies to give away. A great read for both secular and theological thinkers.

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very personal accounting of Murray's faith journey but still very accessible and replete with reccomended readings to go deeper into the categories he presents. I personally relate to Murray's feeling of being on the outside looking in, but that is part of the journey, very happy to have read this and looking forward to reading some of the reccomendations.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

An agnostic scholar finds grace as he examines the evidence for God

Brilliant, lively and accessible. Charles Murray reignites my curiosity about God and Christ. No dogma or moralizing in this book, but a passionate curiosity about why humans and the universe are the ways we’re.

[Rose Gundersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A humble analytical approach to Christianity and faith

I love how the author recognizes his low religion-IQ yet he built his faith with a journalistic lens. It’s delightful to read with new facts to support many aspects around Christianity.

[Andres Rubio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intelligent discovery of faith and religion.

Wonderful book about a journey of discovering faith through analysis and intelligence. Faith is not blind but rather a reasoned state of mind. I will read over and over for rest of my life.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book drew me deeper into my faith

The author describes his return to faith in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit after thirty years. Highly recommended reading if you have identified as agnostic or atheist after being raised religiously.

[Joe Wiggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended. I found my life in pretty much the same place as Mr. Murray's and found this to be extremely helpful in clarifying my thoughts. And beliefs.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book documenting the spiritual seeking and finding of the author.

[Burton J. Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most Excellent Read!

Did not know what to expect going in. Coming out I am both pleased and intellectually invigorated. I highly recommend!