SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
What does it mean to have faith? That's the central question of the podcast Ye Gods With Scott Carter from WGCU. The show explores how beliefs, sacred or secular, shape our lives, and each episode features actors, writers, comics or clergy discussing their strategies for navigating life. I spoke with the show's creator and host, Scott Carter, and I asked him who he wanted to talk to about spirituality, and what about those who don't really believe in it?
SCOTT CARTER, BYLINE: You know, the tagline of this show is, if life's a mystery, whodunit? So the show is not just for the 70% of Americans who identify as spiritual, but for people who, you know, have experiences that have turned them off to spirituality, but now they're open to exploring these big topics, because I think that everybody - believers, atheists, agnostics - everybody has a moral code, and I want to know where that code comes from. One of my favorites and, in some ways, one of the funniest examples is actress and comedian Julia Sweeney, who was raised devoutly Catholic for most of her life, but she's now an atheist who identifies still as a cultural Catholic. And here's a clip where I ask her about that.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
CARTER: You have your mother saying to you, you're so Catholic, you won't even give yourself the pleasure of believing in God.
JULIA SWEENEY: OK, but this is why I think that, because I do have a Catholic response to not believing in God - that no matter how uncomfortable it is, you stick with what you believe in. That's what I feel like my mother's calling Catholic. You're so convicted to the death of what you think is right that you won't even have the pleasure of thinking the world is a magical place.
MCCAMMON: Scott, is that kind of what you're trying to get at with the show, the magic of the world?
CARTER: Yeah, what I'm trying to do for the listener is, maybe somebody thinks they should be pursuing these topics but doesn't know where to start. Well, every show, you're getting different people to say, here's how I make sense. So in some ways, I'm the opposite of Julia. I don't feel drawn to a particular tradition, but I also - I completely believe in God. And for Julia, she retains the influence of saints, and she texts with people at the Vatican, but she has totally left behind any belief in God or the Bible or Jesus. And I find that seeming contradiction to be fascinating. Even though we're so different, it's a completely delightful conversation.
MCCAMMON: I also consider myself a spiritual, religious person in certain ways. So I want to ask this question with that sort of as the preface. But, you know, I think to a lot of people, especially to an outsider, sometimes religious beliefs can seem a little kooky for lack of a better word. Do you ever feel compelled to push back, challenge the beliefs of your guests?
CARTER: I tell the guests that I won't ask any question that I wouldn't be willing to answer myself. And comedian Pete Holmes, who was perhaps our most philosophically engaged guest, really pushed back on my own knowledge. He draws his spirituality from Eastern and Western religions, and he kind of turned the tables on me during the three questions I ask at the end of each show, one of which is, when we die, do you think There's a judgment on our time on Earth?
MCCAMMON: And?
CARTER: And I wasn't prepared to answer it because what he had said got me thinking. And when he turned the tables on me, I think I stumbled through an answer and said that with Pascal's wager I lean - 'cause we don't know what's going to happen when we die - I lean on the side that something's going to happen.
MCCAMMON: Because of Pascal's wager? I mean, isn't that the idea that you should believe in God because, you know, if you're right, then you're better off in the end, and if you're wrong and there's no God, there's no consequence for that?
CARTER: Right. And I'm with that. Why not live your life as though there is a loving God and there will be some sort of reward when you die and this existence is not the only thing there is?
MCCAMMON: Scott, beyond maybe satisfying your own curiosity, what are you trying to accomplish with this show?
CARTER: I'm 73. I have two adult daughters. And I think for young people now, the path to the middle class is not what it was for my generation. And so I think that a lot of young people are having considerations about spiritual issues and are looking for hints in how to go about and explore them. I recently interviewed novelist and practicing Buddhist George Saunders, and I think his take on life's big questions kind of echoes my own.
GEORGE SAUNDERS: When we think about the finite nature of our life here, it makes us think about the nature of our life here. So in other words, if you went to a beautiful party and someone said, it's ending, but I can't tell you when, suddenly the party is infused with that quality. So when I think about death, I'm not imagining myself, you know, cross-armed in my deathbed, but I'm thinking that time is precious and how am I doing? What should we be doing here?
MCCAMMON: You know, my husband always says none of us get out of here alive, which is his way of saying live every moment, live every day. And I think it sounds like Saunders is saying something like that.
CARTER: Yeah, and I don't - this show will not provide you with answers, so much as I think what we're here to do - I think we're here to get working premises, that are always evolving, by which we navigate our life. Ye Gods is not - we don't pick what's the best religion. What we're about is being open to exploring how our beliefs got to be our beliefs, and do they help or hurt us?
MCCAMMON: That was Scott Carter of Ye Gods podcast. You can listen to the show anywhere you get NPR Network podcasts. Thanks so much, Scott.
CARTER: Thank you, Sarah. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
