Truth Box Tune-Up: Nancy Ellen Abrams

This episode won second place for "Excellence in Radio and Podcasting" at the 2016 Religion News Association national conference

In this wide-ranging interview, our host David Dault talks with Nancy Ellen Abrams, author of A God That Could Be Real: Spirituality, Science, and the Future of Our Planet, about new discoveries in cosmology and their profound effect on our understanding of the universe and religion.

Abrams argues that new revelations in physics and cosmology overturn our traditional understandings of religion. But rather than arguing for atheism, Abrams calls for a grounding of faith in the language of science - a tune up for the "truth box" we use to describe the world.

Abrams is a philosopher of science, lawyer, and author. She is married to the cosmologist Joel R. Primack, who helped develop the understanding of dark matter and dark energy in the universe.

As a result of an eating disorder, Abrams joined a twelve-step program. She found herself struggling with the concept of a "higher power." This questioning led her to thoroughly re-examine the basis of religious belief, in light of the discoveries made by her husband and his colleagues.

The result is A God That Could Be Real: Spirituality, Science, and the Future of Our Planet, which introduces the reader to a redefinition of God that is both true to her heart and consistent with cutting-edge science.

According to Abrams, we’ve all grown up so steeped in tradition, whether we’ve accepted it or rebelled against it, that it’s hard to grasp that the chance to re-define God is actually in our hands. “But it is,” she proclaims, “and the way we do it will play a leading role in shaping the future of civilization.”

With Primack, she co-wrote The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos, and The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World. You can find out more information about her book at her author website.

In our conversation, we reference a 2014 interview with Phyllis Tickle. You can listen to that interview here.