Show Notes
How do you become religious? What is a conversion experience? Does it happen all at once or gradually? What's the point of religion, anyway? These are questions that JF (a Catholic) and Phil (a Zennist) have often been asked since starting Weird Studies, and in this episode they attempt some answers.
Image: "Small Candle Flame" by Le Priyavrat, via Wikimedia Commons
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REFERENCES
Ross Douthat, Believe
Dogen, Shobogenzo
New Atheism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atheism
Weird Studies, Episode 99 on “Wild, Wild Country”
William James, Varieties of Religious Experience
George Steiner, Real Presences
Patrick Curry, Art and Enchantment
Max Picard, The Flight from God
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games
Richard Wagner, Ring Cycle
Gilles Deleuze, The Logic of Sense
Weird Studies, Episode 183 on “Siddhartha”
Charles Sanders Peirce, American philosopher
Leonard Cohen, “Hallelujah”
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More from Weird Studies
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Episode 218 will drop at the end of our summer break on September 9, 2026. Today, enjoy this recent audio extra, originally released for members of the Weird Studies Patreon. In the intro, JF announces two important Weirdosphere events: a talk on language in the age of AI by Emma Stamm, and a new six-week course on the idea of truth in horror cinema and literature. To learn more and enroll, visit Weirdosphere.