In my earlier years, on the strength of a University science degree, and perhaps also by temperament, I leant towards the more ambitious view of the capabilities of human comprehension. But in recent years, I've become more and more convinced of the position Karen Armstrong, Gabriel Marcel and Mark Vernon expound. In particular, I've become more and more cautious about making any statements that begin with the word 'God'. Debate about whether, or in what sense, God 'exists' has come to seem to me futile, and for all practical purposes I am now agnostic about God.
This development has made me more and more certain that there will always be a large component of mystery limiting our understanding in other areas — about the beginning of things (the much vaunted 'Big Bang'), about space and time, about what is going on in the deepest recesses of every atom, and, not least, about what is going on inside me — in both my body and my mind.
It might have been a good thing if I could have achieved this level of humility 60 years sooner. Just possibly, being willing to acknowledge mystery that is permanently beyond all of us, is the beginning of wisdom.
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