Naked Humanity

You might not think about death very often, but the work of today’s guest has demonstrated that death plays a crucial role in our psychological make-ups. Sheldon Solomon is an expert psychologist and one of the world’s leading theorists in Terror Management Theory, which is a subfield of psychology that explores how pretty much everything we do and think is an attempt to evade the prospect of death.  Death makes us feel vulnerable, so we become more entrenched in our cultural worldviews, more violent against outsiders, and more invested in our own egos.

A lot of people in the world today think that all you have to do is make yourself happy. But is that any way to live? Is that actually how the world works? In this episode, Stefani tells the history of the debate, weighs the pros and cons of various arguments, and tells you eventually why yes, we are most certainly obligated to help change the world.

Continuing where we left off in episode 22, today philosopher Donald Crosby and I explore in depth all of the ways in which he thinks nature is better at meeting our spiritual needs than traditional religion. We discuss his new ideas about nature and God, morality, the flow of time, purpose, meaning, death, and more.

Did you know there is a whole academic field dedicated to the study of how to be spiritual and still believe in science? It’s called religious naturalism, and today I tell you all about it’s history, some of its forerunners, major themes, and what it can offer that traditional religion can’t.

Donald Crosby is the best philosopher you’ve never heard of. One of Stefani’s all time favorite thinkers, Crosby comes on the show today to discuss the problem of nihilism in today’s world: where does it come from, and how is it impacting us today? What do traditional religion and traditional conceptions of God have to do with it? As it turns out, everything. This is the first in a two-episode series with Professor Crosby.

How much are you personally persuaded by demagogues, emotional argumentation, and the crowd? How much is Stefani? In this episode Stefani takes and walks you through a quiz designed to answer these questions. Remember: be as honest with yourself as possible, and there are no wrong answers.

Arie Kruglanski was born in Nazi Poland is today one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of extremism, terrorism, and close-mindedness. In this episode he chats with Stefani about how badly humans tend to need certain kinds of certainty and significance. Without them we (usually) become close-minded, easily persuaded by demagogues and the crowd, and begin to hate those who oppose us. These problems are especially important for the modern world. Listen in to get a keen understanding of how and why our world has become as tense as it has.

Stefani explores one of the background principles of her current book--that uncertainty is often one of the most stressful and problematic things we can feel. She explains various experiments and theories in the field of psychology that lead her to believe the management of uncertainty is one of the keys to both having a better life and also saving the world.

How much do our beliefs--both conscious and subconscious--influence our society and politics? Today Stefani chats with Dr Michael Hogue about some fundamental beliefs we’ve inherited in the West: that humans are separate from nature, that God is separate from Creation, and especially that God is an all-powerful being. Hogue argues that these beliefs are the cause of our current political and environmental crises. What do we need to overcome them? New kinds of gods.

What does it mean to be saved? Who can be saved? In today’s episode, Stefani shares one of the innovations she is contributing to the study of religion: a completely new theory of salvation.