So first he begins to doubt, and then he begins to disbelieve, perhaps, in his father s God. . . . He learns to doubt, that it is necessary to doubt, that it is valuable to doubt. So he questions everything. . . . The result of this self-study or thinking, or whatever it is, often ends with a conclusion that is very close to certainty that there is a God. Feynman sees atheism as developing out of a methodological skepticism.
All believers ask questions, of course.
Suppose, however, our student does come to the view that individual prayer is not heard. . . . Then the doubting machinery, his doubts, are turned on ethical problems. Because, as he was educated, his religious views had it that the ethical and moral values were the word of God. Now if God maybe isn t there, maybe the ethical and moral values are wrong. And what is very interesting is that they have survived almost intact. . . .