Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

"Truly a Mere Christianity for the 21st century"--World magazine

From the host of the Interesting Times podcast

Do you ever wish you had more faith? Here is a blueprint for thinking your way from doubt to belief.

As a columnist for the New York Times who writes often about spiritual topics for a skeptical audience, Ross Douthat understands that many of us want to have more faith than we do. Douthat argues that in light of what we know today it should be harder to not have faith than to have it.

With empathy, clarity, and rigor, Douthat explores:

• Why nonbelief requires ignoring what our reasoning faculties tell us about the world
• How modern scientific developments make a religious worldview more credible, not less
• Why it's entirely reasonable to believe in mystical and supernatural realities
• How an open-minded religious quest should proceed amid the diversity of religious faiths
• How Douthat's own Christianity is informed by his blueprint for belief

With clear and straightforward arguments, Believe shows how religious belief makes sense of the order of the cosmos and our place within it, illuminates the mystery of consciousness, and explains the persistent reality of encounters with the supernatural. Highly relevant for our current moment, Believe offers a pathway for thinking your way from doubt into belief, from uncertainty about our place in the universe into a confidence that we are here for a reason.

Ross Douthat has been a New York Times Opinion columnist since April 2009. Previously, he was a senior editor at the Atlantic. He is the author of The Deep Places; The Decadent Society; To Change the Church; Bad Religion; Privilege; and, with Reihan Salam, Grand New Party. He is the film critic for National Review. He lives with his wife and five children in New Haven, Connecticut.