When asked the question 'What do you believe?' I suppose it to mean, first and foremost, 'Do you believe in God?' My mind is a blank with regard to this, as to similar questions. 'Do you believe in life after death?' 'Do you believe that life has any meaning other than that which we put into it?' I am incapable of thinking that there is an eternal being whose existence has neither beginning nor end, because I cannot think a beginning which has no previous beginning, an end which has no subsequent end. Equally, if scientists tell me that the universe began with the Big Bang, I find myself asking: 'How did the forces begin that began the banging?'

LRB 26 October 1989 | PDF Download