Editing Martin Gardner (section)

==Theism and religion==
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|quote= I am a philosophical theist. I believe in a personal God, and I believe in an afterlife, and I believe in prayer, but I don't believe in any established religion. This is called philosophical theism. ... Philosophical theism is entirely emotional. As Kant said, he destroyed pure reason to make room for faith.<ref name=spectrummagazine.org/>
|source = – Martin Gardner, 2008
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Gardner was raised as a [[Methodism|Methodist]]—his mother was very religious—but rejected established religion as an adult.<ref name=fame>[https://www.famousscientists.org/martin-gardner/ Martin Gardner] Famous Scientists</ref> He considered himself a [[philosophical theism|philosophical theist]] and a [[fideist]].<ref name=spectrummagazine.org>{{cite web | url=http://www.spectrummagazine.org/node/1091 | title=Interview: Martin Gardner on Philosophical Theism, Adventists and Price | magazine=[[Spectrum (magazine)|Spectrum]] | date=17 October 2008 | access-date=December 21, 2019 | author=Carpenter, Alexander | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160713163439/http://spectrummagazine.org/node/1091 | archive-date= July 13, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> He believed in a personal [[God]], in an [[afterlife]], and prayer, but rejected established religion. Nevertheless, he had an abiding fascination with religious belief. In his autobiography, he stated: "When many of my fans discovered that I believed in God and even hoped for an afterlife, they were shocked and dismayed ... I do not mean the [[God of the Bible]], especially the God of the [[Old Testament]], or any other book that claims to be divinely inspired. For me God is a "Wholly Other" transcendent intelligence, impossible for us to understand. He or she is somehow responsible for our universe and capable of providing, how I have no inkling, an afterlife."<ref>Gardner (2013) [https://archive.org/details/undilutedhocuspo0000gard/page/152 <!-- quote=how I have no inkling. --> p. 191]</ref>

Gardner described his own belief as [[philosophical theism]] inspired by the works of philosopher [[Miguel de Unamuno]]. While eschewing systematic religious doctrine, he retained a belief in God, asserting that reason or science cannot confirm or confirm this belief.<ref name=george_groth>Groth (1983)</ref> At the same time, he was skeptical of claims that any god has communicated with human beings through spoken or telepathic [[revelation]] or through [[miracle]]s in the natural world.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/may/25/martin-gardner Martin Gardner: 1914–2010: Chris French mourns the passing of Martin Gardner], ''[[The Guardian]]'', May 25, 2010</ref> Gardner has been quoted as saying that he regarded [[parapsychology]] and other research into the [[paranormal]] as tantamount to "tempting God" and seeking "[[signs and wonders]]". He stated that while he would expect tests on the efficacy of prayers to be negative, he would not rule out ''a priori'' the possibility that unknown paranormal forces may allow prayers to influence the physical world.<ref name=ReferenceA>''The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener'' by Martin Gardner, Quill, 1983, pp. 238–239</ref>

Gardner wrote repeatedly about what public figures such as [[Robert Maynard Hutchins]], [[Mortimer Adler]], and [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]] believed and whether their beliefs were [[logically consistent]]. He sometimes attacked prominent religious figures such as [[Mary Baker Eddy]] because their claims were unsupportable. His semi-autobiographical novel ''The Flight of Peter Fromm'' depicts a traditionally Protestant Christian struggling with his faith, examining 20th-century scholarship and intellectual movements and ultimately rejecting Christianity while remaining a theist.<ref name=george_groth/>

Gardner said that he suspected that the fundamental nature of human [[consciousness]] may not be knowable or discoverable unless perhaps a physics more profound than ("underlying") [[quantum mechanics]] is someday developed. In this regard, he said, he belonged to "a group of thinkers known as the '[[new mysterianism|mysterians]]'."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160131235956/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/mind_at_play_an_interview_with_martin_gardner "A Mind at Play: An Interview with Martin Gardner"] by [[Kendrick Frazier]], ''[[Skeptical Inquirer]]'' Volume 22.2, March/April 1998</ref> His philosophical views, in general, are described and defended in his book ''The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener'' (1983, revised 1999).<ref name=Night_is_Large/>