Sam Harris joined Coy to discuss his book The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
Steven Waldman on religion in politics and the film Religulous
On Thursday, October 16th, Steven Waldman, author of Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and The Birth of Religious Freedom In America joined host Coy Barefoot on WINA’s “Charlottesville-Right Now!” Waldman is the founder and editor of Beliefnet.com, the largest website for religion and spirituality on the internet.
They discussed the final presidential debate and each candidate’s strategy on the abortion issue, speaking to moderates or partisans. Waldman talked about the groundbreaking new Twelve Tribes of Politics study, which has discovered how the relationship between religion and politics is changing. For example, religion is much less correlated with votes in many cases now, with the exception of Evangelicals who prefer McCain, and Protestants who prefer Obama.
Waldman discusses Bill Maher’s new film Religulous, calling it funny but criticizing its presentation as a documentary because it has “completely flouted normal documentary standards,” using a gotcha film style more similar to Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat.
Steven Waldman on the faith of the Founding Fathers
The culture wars have distorted the dramatic story of how Americans came to worship freely. Many activists on the right maintain that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Many on the left contend that the Founders were deists and the advent of the First Amendment proves that church and state should be separated. Author Steven Waldman contends that neither of these claims are true in his new book Founding Faith: Providence, Politics and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America.