Why Religion Matters

This work presents Smith's sustained critique of scientific materialism and defense of the religious worldview as essential for human flourishing. Smith argues that modernity's restriction of knowledge to empirical science has created a "tunnel vision" that excludes the transcendent dimensions of reality acknowledged by all major religious traditions. He contends that this reductionist worldview, which he terms "scientism," impoverishes human experience and understanding by denying the validity of religious insight.

Smith employs intellectual history to trace the development of the modern naturalistic worldview from the Enlightenment through contemporary scientific materialism. He examines how the success of scientific method in explaining physical phenomena led to its inappropriate extension as the sole arbiter of truth and reality. Against figures like Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins, Smith maintains that consciousness, meaning, and value cannot be adequately explained through purely materialistic frameworks. He draws extensively from perennial philosophy and the mystical traditions of world religions to argue for a hierarchical view of reality that includes transcendent dimensions.

The work develops a cumulative case for theism by assembling evidence from multiple domains: the universality of religious experience across cultures, the explanatory limitations of materialism, the human need for meaning and purpose, and reported mystical encounters with the divine. Smith particularly emphasizes how traditional religious cosmologies provide more satisfying accounts of consciousness, morality, and aesthetic experience than reductionist alternatives. He argues that the modern exclusion of transcendence from legitimate knowledge represents not intellectual progress but a constriction of human understanding.

Smith's contribution to the God debate lies in his sophisticated articulation of why religious worldviews remain intellectually credible and existentially necessary despite the dominance of scientific materialism. Rather than opposing science per se, he advocates for an expanded epistemology that includes but transcends empirical methods. His work challenges the assumption that modernity necessarily entails secularization, arguing instead that the perennial human orientation toward transcendence reflects genuine features of reality. The book serves as both a philosophical defense of religious consciousness and a cultural critique of scientistic ideology, positioning religious wisdom as an indispensable complement to scientific knowledge for addressing fundamental questions about existence, meaning, and human purpose.