Terry Pratchett on God and Religion
Last year, Terry Pratchett gave a talk hosted by the Guardian. One young woman asked him about God and religion. The author acted surprised and gave a 7-minute answer to the question while expounding on Carl Sagan, the differences between street lamps and stars (street lamps are much more invaluable due to their rarity), and his reactions to Genesis. You can watch the entire video here.
Just recently, I read an article in the Daily Mail by Terry Pratchett himself, which coincidentally was also on the topic of God and religion, available here. The article is as creatively written as his books- he espouses briefly on his favorite God of all time-Annoia, the Goddess of Things that Get Stuck in Small Drawers. Not familiar with that one? That is a God of his own creation. Apparently, creating your own deities is one of the side benefits of being a fantasy writer.
However, in most of the article, which is really more of a personal essay, Terry Pratchett meanders his way through his past experiences with God and the evolution of his personal beliefs, which morphed over time.
“As a boy I had a clear image of the Almighty: He had a tail coat and pinstriped trousers, black, slicked-down hair and an aquiline nose.”
His history and views on God are complicated; as an inquisitive child, he wasn’t really ready to accept the views of the Church of England, which was the religion he was brought up in. One day, he asked a teacher at school what the opposite of a miracle was. She answered: an act of God.
Looking back, Terry Pratchett reflects that that answer might have had some influence on his religious persuasions of today and states pretty clearly and concisely that in his mind, “science is a better bet”.
This is not to say that he has experienced spiritual moments, or had feelings that were outside of his normal realm of experience. As he puts it:
It's that moment, that brief epiphany when the universe opens up and shows us something, and in that instant we get just a sense of an order greater than Heaven and, as yet at least, beyond the grasp of Stephen Hawking. It doesn't require worship, but, I think, rewards intelligence, observation and enquiring minds.
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