Award-winning novelist and philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein's latest novel, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, tackles one of the great debates of our time - between God-believers and the so-called "new atheists" - and explores the rapture and torments of religious experience in all its variety.
Join her and her husband, cognitive theorist Steven Pinker at the RSA for a very special conversation, addressing a fascinating array of topics at the the interface of literature, science, religion and philosophy, including the dynamic between reason and emotion, the role of fiction in intellectual life and the mystery of consciousness.
Bio
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein grew up in White Plains, New York, and graduated summa cum laude from Barnard College, receiving the Montague Prize for Excellence in Philosophy, and immediately went on to graduate work at Princeton University, receiving her Ph.D. in philosophy. While in graduate school she was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship and a Whiting Foundation Fellowship.
After earning her Ph.D. she returned to her alma mater, where she taught courses in philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, the rationalists, the empiricists, and the ancient Greeks. It was some time during her tenure at Barnard that, quite to her own surprise, she used a summer vacation to write her first novel, The Mind-Body Problem.
More novels followed: The Late-Summer Passion of a Woman of Mind; The Dark Sister, which received the Whiting Writer's Award, Mazel, which received the 1995 National Jewish Book Award and the 1995 Edward Lewis Wallant Award; and Properties of Light: A Novel of Love, Betrayal, and Quantum Physics. Her book of short stories, Strange Attractors, received a National Jewish Book Honor Award.
Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.
After teaching at MIT for 21 years, he returned to Harvard in 2003 as the Johnstone Professor of Psychology. Pinker's experimental research on cognition and language won the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences, the Henry Dale Prize from the Royal Institute of Great Britan, and two prizes from the American Psychological Association.
He has also received several honorary doctorates and numerous awards for graduate and undergraduate teaching, general achievement, and his critically acclaimed books the Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and The Blank Slate.
Pinker has also appeared in many television documentaries and writes frequently in the popular press, including in The New York Times, Time, and The New Republic.
Relation of human beings to God or the gods or to whatever they consider sacred or, in some cases, merely supernatural. Archaeological evidence suggests that religious beliefs have existed since the first human communities. They are generally shared by a community, and they express the communal culture and values through myth, doctrine, and ritual. Worship is probably the most basic element of religion, but moral conduct, right belief, and participation in religious institutions also constitute elements of the religious life. Religions attempt to answer basic questions intrinsic to the human condition (Why do we suffer? Why is there evil in the world? What happens to us when we die?) through the relationship to the sacred or supernatural or (e.g., in the case of Buddhism) through perception of the true nature of reality. Broadly speaking, some religions (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are outwardly focused, and others (e.g., Jainism, Buddhism) are inwardly focused.
Perhaps it is because the vast majority of athiests (and many theists) seem to lack the ability to suspend their strict adherence to rationality and understand the universe through abstraction. Note: This also happens to be the key ability of creative people, who are rare and highly undervalued by our society.
Religion and the real topics it concerns itself with (eg: the nature of existence as opposed to gay marriage) are not able to be solved through rational thought, and yet, atheists insist on using rationality to explain the irrational.
When you begin to understand your world as a concept as opposed to a reality, all of a sudden God doesn't seem like such a ridiculous idea. The most notable side effect is a willingness to participate in discussions and consider ideas you would have brushed aside in the past.
Think about it. An atheist has little need to consider anything beyond what is observable and readily apparent. Even morality becomes more of a self righteous measure of ones own character than anything else. Without a willingness to consider the unseen and even the unknowable, one becomes trapped in the triviality of ones daily affairs. How very boring and uninspiring.
To be America's Brainiest Couple, I find this discussion banal, at best. I'd much rather read either of their works than suffer their speaking engagements (though I've held this opinion of Pinker for a very long time). Is there some sort of mental illness that causes atheists that aren't Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris to be painfully boring speakers?
Just an observation: It seems that all the arguments for God's existence in this discussion are arguments why man needs god to exist. They are all arguments of why we need to believe in purpose, in meaning. That I don't doubt. They don't make the case that there is a supernatural, everlasting, omniscient, omnipotent consciousness that exerts its will upon our world, an entity that is not effected by the laws of the universe, but that intervenes.
They are probably right that we need meaning (other than the godless atheists) but that doesn't mean that the meaning is God. After 2,400 years of the Plato that Goldstein describes and worships, why are we still searching for meaning?
I came from a family without religion, married a man who came from a family without religion, raised 2 brilliant, loving, caring children without religion and I have often wondered what caused others to need religion when clearly it is not needed by so many people.
Is it like religious diabetes where some people are born without the ability to cope and others develop an inability to cope later in life? All of the people I have known who developed a need for religion later in life, developed hyper-religious, cultish behaviors like standing on street corners screaming "Whore" at complete strangers. They all went insane, murdered people, tried to murder their children, committed suicide, became drug addicted, committed adultery with church leaders, alienated themselves from family members, became homeless etc. Or they are the ones who "found" religion while in jail and promptly lose it after the parole hearing.
Most of the people I have known who claim a religion never actually attend services of any kind and the ones who do only attend for an hour once a week or only on holidays. They seem to be on an even keel and don't generally exhibit any outrageous behaviors. These people seem to do it out of habit started in childhood.
So what I want to know is there some mental illness that people develop that causes them to seek out religion and because religion is a sacred cow they do not get any treatment because no one dares an intervention?
Her views on science and mathematics seem to border on the naive... from the wrong side. She certainly did not manage to interest me in her work. Having said that, her interviewer didn't do anything to give her a real forum, either.
who rely is an atheists? I honestly have not met one. I say this, becasue the viws of theologians are not necessarily those of God, even if the claim to be. I have not read those books, but will make an effort to. But I seriously believe that to claim the title of atheist, is confrming to the perceptions of organized religions whether yo believe it or not.
I recently finished "The 39 Arguments for the Existence of God". I read lots of academic/intellectual books of all types and tend to avoid fiction. This book blew me away. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Rebecca blends serious philosophy and fascinating characters into a book that can be read on many levels. I plan to read it at least one more time - hoping to "get" into the deeper levels. It was so entertaining that I'm sure I read it too fast to catch everything. This book is much more than a "novel" - it's a real experience to be treasured. I've bought all of her books and am looking forward to reading all of them. Yes, I am a proud Atheist.
Having been married on July 3, 1982 by Tom Ferrick, Humanist Counselor at Harvard, I smiled hearing that data herewith. Am so enjoying this conversation and will go find the book discussed. Informative, entertaining and worth sharing is this conversation, thank you.
member. 
