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").