The New Gospel

But for day-in, day-out lifelong bracing, there is probably nothing so effective as religion: it makes powerful and talented people more humble and patient, it makes average people rise above themselves, it provides sturdy support for many people who desperately need help staying away from drink or drugs or crime.  People who would otherwise be self-absorbed or shallow or crude or simply quitters are often ennobled by their religion, given a perspective on life that helps them make the hard decisions that we all would be proud to make.

To Darwin it was clear that the Cartesian line was indefensible simply because it was clear that we’re primates—we’re mammals.  The continuity of nature was not going to permit one species on the planet to have miracle stuff in its brain [immaterial soul] when no other species did.