Introduction[Stephen harrumphs.] But why is Fido?
There is another answer.
Ye s? [Stephen sits up.]
It’s not exactly an answer.
Oh?
More like a mystery.
I like mysteries.
I’m not sure you’re going to like this one.
Tell me!
Well, there was another philosopher who was a friend of
Bertrand Russell, in fact. He was called Ludwig Wittgenstein,
and he said, ‘Not how the world is, but that it is, is the
mystery.’
Wo w!
There’s something else.
What?
The mystery is sometimes given a name.
What’s the name?
It’s called God.If this dialogue sparks even a scintilla of curiosity in you, this
book should be of interest. It could be said to hang on that small,
nagging and momentous question: why is there something, not
nothing? It’s been called the secular miracle – though it’s one
that some dismiss, particularly when the asking leads, in its fi nal
stages, to the mystery signifi ed by the word ‘God’. Not that you
or I necessarily fi nd belief in God straightforward or immediately
compelling, a hesitancy that doubles when it comes to trusting
any particular religion and its systems. This book is for agnos-
tics. Neither, though, are you a wannabe atheist, as some of the
committed godless are wont to describe us (which treats us like
some gay men treat bisexuals: gay really, if only we’d properly
come out.) You have a sense of the spiritual in life too, by which
I mean that thread of transcendence that runs through being
human and eludes the best descriptions of biologists, psycholo-
gists and sociologists. It’s often hidden though shared, perhaps in