Robert Wright: From Mindful Resistance to the New Agnosticism

I am super duper pumped to share my conversation with Robert Wright. For a long time I have enjoyed Bob’s podcast, books, and his new post-Trump newsletter. His return to the podcast follows my visit this past week on his own, which was a bunch of fun. Here’s a number of topics we tackle: Why… Read more about Robert Wright: From Mindful Resistance to the New Agnosticism

I am super duper pumped to share my conversation with Robert Wright. For a long time I have enjoyed Bob’s podcast, books, and his new post-Trump newsletter. His return to the podcast follows my visit this past week on his own, which was a bunch of fun.

Here’s a number of topics we tackle:

Why Buddhism is True

The problem with getting rid of prayers of confession from worship

Why everyone could use a class in evolutionary psychology

Western love of secular buddhism

Robert asks Tripp about confirmation and facilitating experiments in truth

What is a “wet baptist”?

The role and desire of religious rituals

Can religions leave competition behind? Can Christianity become a wisdom tradition?

The New Agnosticism

The hard problem of consciousness

“purpose” in the story of evolution

the possibility of moral progress

how a simple theist may end up being more accurate than the New Atheists

how Process theology’s multiple ultimates gives a different way to connect eastern and western religious traditions

the problem of religious pluralism and how to do solve it

why I hope Bob talks with Simon Conway Morris

Want to check out more of Robert’s work? Here’s a few places to go.

The video/podcasting network he started, BloggingHeads.TV
The Mindful Resistance Newsletter (it is so good)
His class on Buddhism and Modern Science
Here’s his lecture from Union Theological Seminary on the New Agnosticism
Here’s Robert’s previous visit to the podcast from 2009

Here’s the conversation I had with Robert the day before on his podcast

Robert Wright is the New York Times bestselling author of The Evolution of God (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Nonzero, The Moral Animal (named one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review), Three Scientists and their Gods (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Why Buddhism Is True. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the widely respected Bloggingheads.tv and has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Time, Slate, and The New Republic. He has taught in the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania and the religion department at Princeton University, where he also created the popular online course “Buddhism and Modern Psychology.” He is currently Visiting Professor of Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York.