Books, Arts & Manners: The Side of the Angels

Religion By Leszek Kolakowski

Oxford, 235 pp., $18.95 “Atheism shows strength of mind,” said Pascal, “but only to a certain degree.” So spoke one of the most enigmatic thinkers the world has known, who could in one breath call man “a mere reed” and in the next speak of “the greatness of man”—and sincerely believe both at the same time. Mathematician, philosopher, inventor of the calculator, and deviser of the Paris public-transport system, Blaise Pascal knew well the pious follies of the faithful but found more to ridicule in the pompous pretensions of the pure secularists.

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Religion By Leszek Kolakowski

Oxford, 235 pp., $18.95 “Atheism shows strength of mind,” said Pascal, “but only to a certain degree.” So spoke one of the most enigmatic thinkers the world has known, who could in one breath call man “a mere reed” and in the next speak of “the greatness of man”—and sincerely believe both at the same time. Mathematician, philosopher, inventor of the calculator, and deviser of the Paris public-transport system, Blaise Pascal knew well the pious follies of the faithful but found more to ridicule in the pompous pretensions of the pure secularists.