We need to be honest to science. Through the natural and social sciences we know in considerable detail the reality in which we live, move and have our being (to adapt a phrase from Acts of the Apostles 17: 28). We should not sacrifice our sense of truth ‘in the effort to harmonise impossibilities’, nor should we waste our time on attempts to adapt new insights to old views of the world. Rather, we need to adapt our view of the world to the best available insights we have.

Emphasis on the sciences does not imply that other types of human discourse are irrelevant. Even if morality, politics, art, the love for another person, and the love of music can be understood within a naturalist framework informed by the natural and social sciences, they are still real and rich human practices. This applies to religion as well: I do not see religiously relevant gaps in the natural and human world, where the divine could somehow interfere with natural reality. The origins and functions of religions may be intelligible. However, religion can be seen as an important, real, and rich human phenomenon. Furthermore, the whole of reality is not itself understandable within a naturalist framework; in response, a sense of gratitude and wonder with respect to the reality to which we belong may be appropriate.