Ross Douthat on Why Religion Makes More Sense Than You Think | Conversations with Tyler

For Ross Douthat, phenomena like UFO sightings and the simulation hypothesis don't challenge religious belief—they demonstrate how difficult it is to escape religious questions entirely. His new book, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious makes the case for religious faith in an age of apparent disenchantment.

In his third appearance on Conversations with Tyler, Ross joined Tyler to discuss what getting routed by Christopher Hitchens taught him about religious debate, why the simulation hypothesis resembles ancient Gnostic religion, what Mexican folk Catholicism reveals about spiritual intermediaries, his evolving views on papal authority in the Francis era, what UFO sightings might tell us about supernatural reality, why he's less apocalyptic than Peter Thiel about the Antichrist, and why he's publishing a fantasy novel on Substack before AI potentially transforms creative writing.

Recorded January 16th, 2025

Transcript and links: https://conversationswithtyler.com/ep...

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Photo Credit: Abigail Douthat ©

Timestamps
00:00:00 - On what it means to be religious
00:17:57 - On consciousness and the soul
00:29:50 - On the religious implications of alien life
00:43:26 - On experiences with the supernatural
00:57:38 - On the Antichrist and spiritual intermediaries
01:07:10 - On writing fantasy novels