4

The Depths and Shallows

of Experience

Hilary Putnam

No one who has the temerity to address such broad themes as “sci-
ence, religion, and the human experience,” can hope to hide behind
an academic fac ̧ade of professional expertise. To be sure, there are
issues here that can benefit from being treated with scientific or
philosophical sophistication, I believe—otherwise, what amIdoing
in this volume? But the big issues: to believe in God or not to be-
lieve in God; to engage in such religious practices as prayer, attend-
ing services, studying religious texts or not to do so (I amnotequat-
ing this with the issue of believing or not believing in God, by the
way); to look for proof of God’s existence, if one is religious (or
thinking of being religious), or to regard such a quest as misguided;
to be pluralistic in one’s approach to religion, or to regard one reli-
gion as truer than all the rest—these are deeply personal choices,
choices of who to be, not just what to do or what to believe. I do not
believe that philosophical or scientific discussion can provide com-
pelling reasons for making these choices one way rather than an-
other, although such discussion can help us make whichever choices
we make more reflectively. (Avi Sagi once told me that, in a still un-
published fragment of—I think it was a diary of Kierkegaard’s—he
found the words “Leap of faith—yes, but only after reflection.”)
I did say, however, that there are aspects of these issues that a
philosophically sophisticated discussion (as well as a scientifically
sophisticated discussion) could illuminate. The intentionally broad
phrase “the human experience” that the editors adopted in the title
of this volume raises the issue of what is meant by “experience” in
the context of discussions of science and religion (as well, perhaps,