Taner Edis, born and raised in Turkey, is associate professor of physics at Truman State University and the author of The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science and Science and Non-belief, among other publications. His latest book is An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam. In
this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Taner Edis explains reasons he
thinks religion persists, and explores the complex relationship between
science and nonbelief, detailing how the institutional interests of
science may prevent some in the science community from working to
diminish religion, the New Atheists excepted. He talks about how
scientific theories are often misused by paranormalists or
supernaturalists to advance their cultural position, focusing on the
New Age movement's use of quantum physics and on the intelligent design
movement. He examines differences between science and pseudoscience,
arguing that often it is not possible to demarcate what is uniquely
science. And he surveys various scientific approaches of examining
religion, such as rational choice theory, the secularization
hypothesis, and various evolutionary approaches, such as group
selection theory, the byproduct theory of religion, and memetic
approaches (that religion is a "virus of the mind").