The Probabilistic or Bayesian Perspective on God

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When I talk about faith, I meant a path towards the sacred. The question is within a tradition. That's when things become a bit more stochastic. And again, rationality is not a single, univocal sort of thing. You can also have to do with intuitions, like moral intuitions. If you come up against a teaching or something that is repugnant to your moral reasoning, then that is significant. It would be deplorable of you to choose to believe it despite the counsels of your moral reasoning.

David Bentley Hart is an American writer, philosopher, religious scholar, critic, and theologian who has authored over 1,000 essays and 19 books, including a very well-known translation of the New Testament and several volumes of fiction.

In this conversation, Tyler and David discuss ways in which Orthodox Christianity is not so millenarian, how theological patience shapes the polities of Orthodox Christian nations, how Heidegger deepened his understanding of Christian Orthodoxy, who played left field for the Baltimore Orioles in 1970, the simplest way to explain how Orthodoxy diverges from Catholicism, the future of the American Orthodox Church, what he thinks of the Book of Mormon, whether theological arguments are ultimately based on reason or faith, what he makes of reincarnation and near-death experiences, gnosticism in movies and TV, why he dislikes Sarah Ruden’s translation of the New Testament, the most difficult word to translate, a tally of the 15+ languages he knows, what he’ll work on next, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded March 23rd, 2023.

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