Taking Religion Seriously

Taking Religion Seriously is a 2025 autobiographical work by American political scientist Charles Murray. The book traces Murray's journey from agnosticism to a tentative yet public Christian commitment. It is his first extended reflection on religion after four decades of writing on social policy and human diversity.^[1]

Murray opens by examining the secular worldview that dominated his academic career. As a data-driven social scientist rather than theologian, he explains how religious questions became intellectually inescapable through three discoveries: the fine-tuning of physical constants, the hard problem of consciousness, and the enduring power of moral law.^[2]

The book progresses through cosmology, evolutionary psychology, and biblical scholarship. Murray analyzes the historical evidence for the Gospels and Resurrection, concluding that these accounts satisfy modern evidential standards better than secular critics typically acknowledge.^[3]

The Wall Street Journal described the work as a characteristically empirical conversion story that will resonate with readers who distrust both dogma and cynicism.^[4]

Conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan praised Murray's refusal to caricature either atheism or belief while noting that the argument leans heavily on Anglo-American apologetics rather than sacramental experience.^[5]

Anthony Sacramone, writing for Religion & Liberty Online, welcomed the book's layperson tone but argued that it lacks the existential urgency of classic conversion memoirs, and questioned Murray's reliance on fine-tuning arguments, suggesting that his method risks reducing faith to a probabilistic exercise.^[6]

Conservative commentator Tyler Cowen anticipated that the book would extend Murray's long-standing interest in the limits of materialist explanations.^[1] Roger Clegg, called it a measured work of popular apologetics, comparable to Ross Douthat's Believe though less doctrinally confident.^[7]