Tanya Luhrmann: The Experience Is Real. But Is God?
About this episode
Tanya Luhrmann discusses how individuals experience God as real through practices like prayer and the psychological aspects of belief.
SPONSORS: - Nobody likes a call center — ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs fixes that with voice AI that sounds human and works 24/7 in 30+ languages. Try it: https://elevenlabs.io/TOE - Don’t sleep on [@ultrapouches]. New customers get 15% Off with code TOE at http://takeultra.com! #UltraPouches #ad - I personally subscribe to The Economist. TOE listeners get 35% off the annual subscription. No other podcast has this! https://economist.com/TOE This episode is about how an invisible God comes to feel present to someone who prays. It is not about whether God exists. Tanya Luhrmann, professor of anthropology at Stanford, joins to explain how people come to experience God as real, and why she thinks there are an awful lot of atheists sitting in church pews. We discuss Augustine hearing God speak, why the "spiritual but not religious" category has grown to nearly a third of Americans, why a more lovable, therapeutic God is paradoxically harder to believe in than a demanding one, and how practices like prayer and the Ignatian spiritual exercises make an invisible God feel present. The conversation also covers why religious studies classes (not biology classes) most often unsettle a young…
Sponsors
ElevenAgents, UltraPouches, The Economist
More episodes of Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal
- Tim Maudlin: Quantum Nonlocality Explained FROM SCRATCH
- Adrian Owen: Awake. Aware. Unable to Move.
- Peter Godfrey-Smith: This Scientist Found Earth’s “Alien” Minds
- Jacob Tsimerman: He Won Math's Highest Prize. Then Announced the End
- Becca Tarnas: Did Jung and Tolkien Enter the Same World?
- Tim Maudlin: Quantum Mechanics Explained FROM SCRATCH
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal podcast page.