Richard Feynman is one of the most popular physicists of all time. He won the Nobel Prize in physics, and has gained a cult following because of his exceptional Caltech lectures on physics, his effervescent personality, and the witty anecdotes about his antics.

He was also a lifelong atheist. So it’s strange that I bring him up as someone who changed my mind about Christianity.

Let’s go back in time, to when I became a hardcore militant atheist and I declared war on religion, in my mind. I looked up what famous smart people had to say about religion, in an attempt to get “ammo” against it. Richard Feynman, who was one of my heroes, left me empty-handed by not being critical enough of religion, faith, and believers. He always expressed a polite surprise at how a religious answer to empirical matters satisfies some people, but he didn’t elaborate far beyond that. Not a problem, I had enough ammo from other sources.

Years later, as I became disillusioned with the atheist movement (for reasons I have explained elsewhere), I was reading a book by Richard Feynman: “The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist”. Here, I stumbled upon the following paragraphs which caught me by surprise. Here was one of the brightest minds of all time, an atheist like I was, praising Christianity!

“Western civilization, it seems to me, stands by two great heritages. One is the scientific spirit of adventure — the adventure into the unknown, an unknown that must be recognized as unknown in order to be explored, the demand that the unanswerable mysteries of the universe remain unanswered, the attitude that all is uncertain. To summarize it: humility of the intellect. The other great heritage is Christian ethics — the basis of action on love, the brotherhood of all men, the value of the individual, the humility of the spirit. These two heritages are logically, thoroughly consistent. But logic is not all. One needs one’s heart to follow an idea. If people are going back to religion, what are they going back to? Is the modern church a place to give comfort to a man who doubts God? More, one who disbelieves in God? Is the modern church the place to give comfort and encouragement to the value of such doubts? So far, haven’t we drawn strength and comfort to maintain the one or the other of these consistent heritages in a way which attacks the values of the other? Is this unavoidable? How can we draw inspiration to support these two pillars of Western civilization so that they may stand together in full vigor, mutually unafraid? That, I don’t know. But that, I think, is the best I can do on the relationship of science and religion, the religion which has been in the past and still is, therefore, a source of moral code as well as inspiration to follow that code.” “I therefore consider the Encyclical of Pope John XXIII, which I have read, to be one of the most remarkable occurrences of our time and a great step to the future. I can find no better expression of my beliefs of morality, of the duties and responsibilities of mankind, people to other people, than is in that encyclical. I do not agree with some of the machinery which supports some of the ideas, that they spring from God, perhaps, I don’t personally believe, or that some of these ideas are the natural consequence of ideas of earlier popes, in a natural and perfectly sensible way. I don’t agree, and I will not ridicule it, and I won’t argue it. I agree with the responsibilities and with the duties that the Pope represents as the responsibilities and the duties of people. And I recognize this encyclical as the beginning, possibly, of a new future where we forget, perhaps, about the theories of why we believe things as long as we ultimately in the end, as far as action is concerned, believe the same thing.”

I couldn’t believe it. My reaction was: “why didn’t anybody tell me?”. You would think such a counter-intuitive position by one of our brightest minds would make some waves. Even the most hardcore atheist would want to know if the great Richard Feynman holds an unorthodox position about religion, no? As it turns out, not really.

The predominant attitude in the atheist / skeptic / secular community is that Christianity is wrong, stupid, obsolete, even evil, and on its way out anyway. “Good riddance!”, they’d say. No wonder people simply glossed over inconvenient positions such as this one.

Why reconsider your positions when you could simply switch the channel over to one of the celebrity atheists who tell you everything you want to hear?

My next step after reading that book was to pick up the Papal Encyclical he was talking about, “Pacem in Terris” (April 11, 1963). Spending years in the atheist bubble reduced everything I knew about the Catholic Church to a ridiculous straw man. And here I was, reading a thorough document about human rights, values, and duties.

It isn’t that what was said was revolutionary. In fact, I agreed with most of it. I was surprised because years of intellectual isolation made me think that Christianity was nothing more than a collection of kooky ideas, and that nothing valuable could come out of it. (The Christians that atheists love to contend with are more often than not Bible thumpers, faith healers, and Creationists.)

I then picked up other famous Encyclicals. I found out how the Church had opposed Socialism and Nationalism early on. I learned how pretty much every relevant problem we are faced with today has been on the radar of the largest religious institution on Earth for centuries. The solutions proposed to address these problems were largely cultural ones. It tried to get people to help themselves, through changing the structure of their societies and their individual lives, rather than through the direct agency of the State.

I changed my mind about Christianity in general, and about Catholicism in particular. I no longer reduced it to the various literal claims that atheists love to mock.

I saw an institution that has been going strong for thousands of years,which had changed the world for the better, and which still has an essential role to play in our future. Something I’d want to be a part of. Thank you, Richard Feynman!