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The Russell Moore Show

Chris Beha on Why He Isn’t An Atheist Anymore

The Russell Moore Show

Russell Moore

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.71.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Former Harper’s Magazine editor Christopher Beha on his journey from skeptical Atheism to skeptical Christianity. Watch the video of this episode on YouTube here. For many people, faith and skepticism are opposites, but novelist and former Harper’s Magazine editor Christopher Beha argues that the two may be more intertwined than we assume. In this conversation about his new book, Why I’m Not an Atheist, Beha reflects on his journey from a devout Catholic upbringing to atheism and eventually back to Christian faith. Beha describes how an early mystical experience and later personal tragedy pushed him into deep questions about suffering, prayer, and the nature of belief. In college, those questions led him to identify as a skeptic, valuing reason and intellectual independence. Yet over time he came to see that skepticism itself has limits. The turning point came not through philosophical argument but through life itself, like falling in love and becoming part of a family. Those experiences prompted Beha to return to church, where he began hearing familiar Christian teachings in a new way: not primarily as moral demands or metaphysical propositions, but as a story centered on love and relationship–without setting aside his questions. Together, Russell and Chris reflect on what it means to believe while still wrestling with doubt, how parents might talk with children who are questioning faith, and why the path toward belief often begins not with certainty but with simply showing up. If you’ve wrestled with the Christian life being sold as putting aside all questions and doubt to choose unwavering certainty, you may appreciate hearing from Chris.  Resources mentioned in this episode: Why I Am Not an Atheist by Christopher Beha Essays by Michel  de Montaigne Keep up with Russell: Sign up for the weekly newsletter where Russell shares thoughtful takes on big questions, offers a Christian perspective on life, and recommends books and music he's enjoying. Submit a question for the show at questions@russellmoore.com  Subscribe to the Christianity Today Magazine: Special offer for listeners of The Russell Moore Show: Click here for 25% off a subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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If that's you, you'll want to check out the Global Center for Coaching.

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helping them lead transformational conversations that unlock potential in others. You can start by joining a free

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45-minute Discover coaching session online. No pressure, just a chance to explore. Head to global

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center for coaching.org and click attend free discovery event. What religion is about is that loving feeling of having a relationship with God.

0:40.9

And you can't think your way to that. You've got to go do it.

0:47.9

Hello, this is Russell Moore, and this is the Russell Moore show, brought to you by Christianity today.

0:53.5

Here, we look for signposts in a strange time by standing fast to what really matters.

1:00.5

Kingdom over culture wars, truth over tribalism, pilgrimage over partisanship, sanity

1:05.7

over cynicism, witness over winning, and Christ over everything.

1:10.6

Today we have a conversation to do just that.

1:17.9

One of the things I love is hearing from all of you, from listeners, and I know just in looking

1:25.0

through the things that you send to me that people fit into several different categories.

1:31.4

And I'm thinking right now of two specific categories of listeners that we have.

1:38.4

One group are people who would say, I'm a Christian, I'm a believer, I want to follow Jesus, but man, I'm

1:47.6

discouraged. And I've seen some things that really make me wonder if I can keep going. We also

1:56.1

have a lot of atheists and agnostics that listen and who will say, well, I'm not a believer, but I'm curious.

2:03.6

And I want to know what it's like to believe and to engage in these kinds of conversations.

2:10.6

And then we have a lot of other people who would say, look, I'm a committed believer, but I have people in my life who are not, and I'm trying to

2:18.9

figure out how we should relate to one another. All of those categories are going to benefit from

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