Even skeptics cannot fully abandon the idea of immortality
Evidence
Thomas Malthus recognized this surprising convergence of religious and scientific beliefs back in 1798. Best known for developing the idea that populations always increase more rapidly than the means to sustain them (a notion central to Darwin’s theory of evolution), Malthus observed that scientists reject “the light of revelation which absolutely promises eternal life in another state” as well as “natural religion, which…has indicated the future existence of the soul. Yet so congenial is the idea of immortality to the mind of man, that they cannot consent entirely to throw it out of their systems.” — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 390
Categorization
- CANDY: A quotable, self-contained observation: even Malthus, a century before modern criesyncs, spotted scientists clinging to the soul concept they claimed to reject.