Ross Douthat: Why Everyone Should Be Religious
Socrates in the City
Socrates in the City
4.7 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 23 June 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do all roads lead to Rome? And do all paths lead to faith? Ross Douthat, a New York Times Opinion columnist joins Socrates in the City host Eric Metaxas to discuss his new book, Believe, and share his case for why a renewed religious society aligns better with scientific data, history, and our desires for something beyond ourselves. Through his book, Douthat shares the popular arguments against religion, the relationship between faith and science, and how his own personal experience of faith has shifted and grown over time.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Socrates in the studio, which falls under the Aegis, and I believe also the rubric, |
| 0:06.8 | but we're going to check, of Socrates in the city. Socrates in the city usually happens in Manhattan, |
| 0:14.7 | where I live, and today it's happening in Manhattan. We're here, up on 95th Street, on the east side. |
| 0:23.1 | And it's my privilege today to someone whom I've known a long time. |
| 0:28.7 | You may know him as a columnist for the New York Times. |
| 0:33.2 | He's the author of many books. |
| 0:34.8 | His name is Ross Douthit. |
| 0:37.8 | Ross, welcome. |
| 0:38.8 | Thank you, Eric. |
| 0:39.5 | It's great to see you. The most wonderful thing is I'm able to pronounce your name. I think most people would be challenged. You've been trained in it since I was 12 years old. Literally. And you were 15. I was... Because we're basically the same age. Yeah, we have to start there, but just to say that, yes, I knew you when you were 12. |
| 0:56.5 | I knew your mom. |
| 0:57.8 | And it's... basically the same age. Yeah, we have to start there, but just to say that, yes, I knew you |
| 0:55.2 | when you were 12. I knew your mom. And it's, it's, there's something purely delightful, uh, to, |
| 1:02.8 | to, to watch someone grow up, even if they don't flourish as you have flourished. Just a joy, uh, |
| 1:09.3 | to see you generally speaking, but a joy to, um, see what you've been doing. Just a joy to see you, generally speaking, but a joy to see what you've |
| 1:13.2 | been doing and thinking and writing. Today, of course, we're talking about your brand new book. |
| 1:18.3 | And the title of the book seems to me, at least for you, to be uncharacteristically provocative. |
| 1:26.4 | Maybe it's not. Aggressive. Okay. It's aggressive. |
| 1:30.8 | The title of the book is believe, you idiot. No, the title of the book is simply believe, but the |
| 1:38.0 | subtitle is why everyone should be religious. And knowing you, as I do, that does seem, I said it's aggressive, |
| 1:48.7 | and I don't really mean that in a pejorative sense, |
| 1:50.4 | but it's interesting. |
... |
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