Welcome to within reason.

My name is Alex O'Connor.

Tanya Marie Lermann is an American anthropologist

known for her studies of modern day witches

and charismatic Christians.

She's also the author of how God becomes real, a book about what it really means for a person

to say that they believe in God or supernatural agents, and why these kinds of beliefs are different

from the mundane beliefs that we have

about the normal world around us.

And this episode of Within Reason is brought to you by Bart Erman.com

forward slash Alex.

Bart Erman is one of the world's most famous New Testament scholars.

I recently had him on my podcast and it was one of my favorite episodes to date.

Dr. Ehrman offers a wide variety of courses from an agnostic perspective in the New Testament, with courses including,

did the resurrection of Jesus really happen?

Did Jesus think he was God and unknown Gospels, which is a scholarly look at the Gospels, who wrote them, how can we know,

when were they written, are they accurate? So if you're interested in learning about New Testament

scholarship from an agnostic perspective from one of the world's leading experts, then going to Bart Ehrman.com

forward slash Alex or let them know that I've sent you and help out the channel if you do

decide to purchase any of their courses. With that said I hope you enjoy the

following conversation with T.M. Lerman.

T. M. Lerman, thank you so much for being here. Well, thanks for having me. You're an anthropologist who has studied a number of religious communities beginning,

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