Steve Paulson

Salon God, He's moody

In an interview with something to offend everyone, Robert Wright explains why religion has given us a fickle deity
By Steve Paulson Jun 24, 2009

  • Jane Goodall's animal planet

    In a surprising interview, the famous primatologist talks about her mystical experiences in the jungle and her ever-increasing passion for animal rights and cleaning up the "horrendous mess" of our environment.
    By Steve Paulson April 14, 2009

  • God enough

    We should see the ceaseless creativity of nature as sacred, argues biologist Stuart Kauffman, despite what Richard Dawkins might say.
    By Steve Paulson November 19, 2008

  • Religion is poetry

    The beauties of religion need to be saved from both the true believers and the trendy atheists, argues compelling religious scholar James Carse.
    By Steve Paulson July 21, 2008

  • You are the river: An interview with Ken Wilber

    The integral philosopher explains the difference between religion, New Age fads and the ultimate reality that traditional science can't touch.
    By Steve Paulson April 28, 2008

  • Susan Sontag's final wish

    She wanted hope, a reason to believe she would survive cancer. In a candid interview, her son, David Rieff, discusses his mother's battle to live and his struggle to hide the truth.
    By Steve Paulson February 13, 2008

  • The atheist delusion

    Theologian John Haught explains why science and God are not at odds, why Mike Huckabee worries him, and why Richard Dawkins and other "new atheists" are ignorant about religion.
    By Steve Paulson December 18, 2007

  • Proud atheists

    Steven Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein, America's brainiest couple, confess that belonging to one of America's most reviled subcultures doesn't mean they believe scientists can explain everything.
    By Steve Paulson October 15, 2007

  • The religious state of Islamic science

    Turkish-American physicist Taner Edis explains why science in Muslim lands remains stuck in the past -- and why the Golden Age of Mesopotamia wasn't so golden after all.
    By Steve Paulson August 13, 2007

  • We are meant to be here

    People are not the result of a cosmic accident, but of laws of the universe that grant our lives meaning and purpose, says physicist Paul Davies.
    By Steve Paulson July 3, 2007

  • Manufacturing belief

    The origin of religion is in our heads, explains developmental biologist Lewis Wolpert. First we figured out how to make tools, then created a supernatural being.
    By Steve Paulson May 15, 2007

  • Gospel according to Judas

    The recently unearthed Gospel of Judas "contradicts everything we know about Christianity," says religious historian Elaine Pagels.
    By Steve Paulson April 2, 2007

  • The modern Muslim

    Controversial scholar Tariq Ramadan explains why Mohammed had progressive views of women, why the Quran is a prescription for peace -- and why he is banned from Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
    By Steve Paulson February 20, 2007

  • God and gorillas

    Anthropologist Barbara J. King explains what our distant cousins can tell us about religion and why it's OK for scientists to believe in God.
    By Steve Paulson January 31, 2007

  • Seeing the light -- of science

    Ronald Numbers -- a former Seventh-day Adventist and author of the definitive history of creationism -- discusses his break with the church, whether creationists are less intelligent and why Galileo wasn't really a martyr.
    By Steve Paulson January 2, 2007

  • Buddha on the brain

    Ex-monk B. Alan Wallace explains what Buddhism can teach Western scientists, why reincarnation should be taken seriously and what it's like to study meditation with the Dalai Lama.
    By Steve Paulson November 27, 2006

  • The flying spaghetti monster

    Why are we here on earth? To Richard Dawkins, that's a remarkably stupid question. In a heated interview, the famous biologist insists that religion is evil and God might as well be a children's fantasy.
    By Steve Paulson October 13, 2006

  • Divining the brain

    Andrew Newberg discusses what happens in our brains during prayer, meditation and mystical visions. Yet understanding the brain, argues the neuroscientist, does not close the book on the nature of religious experience.
    By Steve Paulson September 20, 2006

  • The believer

    Francis Collins -- head of the Human Genome Project -- discusses his conversion to evangelical Christianity, why scientists do not need to be atheists, and what C.S. Lewis has to do with it.
    By Steve Paulson August 7, 2006

  • The disbeliever

    Sam Harris, author of "The End of Faith," on why religious moderates are worse than fundamentalists, 9/11 led us into a deranged holy war, and believers should be treated like alien-abduction kooks.
    By Steve Paulson July 7, 2006

  • Going beyond God

    Historian and former nun Karen Armstrong says the afterlife is a "red herring," hating religion is a pathology and that many Westerners cling to infantile ideas of God.
    By Steve Paulson May 30, 2006

  • "Religious belief itself is an adaptation"

    Sociobiology founder Edward O. Wilson explains why we're hard-wired to form tribalistic religions, denies that "evolutionism" is a faith, and says that heaven, if it existed, would be hell.
    By Steve Paulson March 21, 2006
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