Podcasts about strange gods a secular history

Claudia Cragg (@KGNUClaudia for @KGNU) speaks here with  about her new book, “,” in which she asserts that “America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism.” For more than a decade, Jacoby says, there have been growing symptoms of this affliction, from fundamentalist assaults on the teaching of evolution to the Bush administration’s willful disavowal of expert opinion on  and strategies for prosecuting the war in Iraq. Conservatives have turned the term “intellectual,” like the term “ liberal,” into a dirty word in politics (even though neo-conservative intellectuals played a formative role in making the case for war against Iraq); policy positions tend to get less attention than personality and tactics in the current presidential campaign; and the democratizing influence of the Internet is working to banish expertise altogether, making everyone an authority on everything.  Susan Jacoby is the author of eleven previous books, including Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism and Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion. Her articles have appeared frequently in the op-ed pages of The New York Times and in forums… 

We tend to think of the process of converting from one religion to another as a religious experience, but how much of that reflects the outlook of the people who usually talk about conversion? When author Susan Jacoby set out to explore conversion from the perspective of an atheist, she found, by contrast, that many if not most religious conversions are undertaken for frankly pragmatic reasons. From politics to position in society, she details many of the reasons people convert in her latest book, Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion. This week, she joins Peggy Knudtson to talk about the book and what the current political season tells us about the influence of religion on the hearts, minds, and ballots of Americans.

In the literature about religious conversion, embracing a new faith is usually explained as being a profound and magical experience. A flash of light, a near death experience, an emotional new beginning; these are all common themes in religious conversion stories. But what about the less flashy stories of people who change their religious affiliation simply for reasons of practicality? Point of Inquiry welcomes back bestselling, award-winning author Susan Jacoby to discus her new book, Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion, an exploration of the cultural, political and secular forces driving religious conversion in the western world. Jacoby argues that while spiritual revelation may be a motivator for some, the majority of religious conversions are far more often due to the secular components of an individual’s life. Susan Jacoby was honored with a Center for Inquiry Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, and formerly served as the program director of CFI’s New York City branch.

We welcome the spring with some light music by freethinking songwriter Yip Harburg (who wrote “Over The Rainbow”) and country singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks (“God Isn’t Real”). After FFRF staff attorney Sam Grover updates us on some state/church victories in southern states, we announce a new drawing for the Yip Harburg book Rhymes For The Irreverent. Then we talk with author, historian, and cultural critic Susan Jacoby about her new book, Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion.

This week I speak with author and public intellectual, Susan Jacoby, about her new book, "Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion." Jacoby explains how stories of famous conversions throughout history are almost always accompanied significant social turmoil and compulsion of one kind or another. Even today, religious conversion is often heavily influenced by socio-political factors.We talk about how the experience of "deconversion" is similar and different from what we usually mean by conversion and whether that is the right word to describe the process.Buy "Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion" here: http://amzn.to/1T5CY8w