Reza Aslan at Carnegie Music Hall

He's like a stand-up comic who can actually teach you something...

Last night I saw Iranian-American scholar-writer Reza Aslan speak at Carnegie Music Hall, part of the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures series (which I attend far, far too few of considering the schedule has been hung on my fridge for most of the past year). Despite the fact I've had a postage-stamp sized picture of Reza Aslan staring me in the face while I make my morning coffee everyday, I still did not plan to attend his talk. After all, the subject matter -- his new book entitled God: A Human History -- did not immediately interest me. After hearing the man speak and listening to him sort of summarize the ideas in the book, I think I owe his book at least a rental from the library, if not a much deeper investigation.

Essentially, Reza Aslan studies religion from an anthropological perspective. Specifically, in God: A Human History, he takes a look at the human compulsion and necessity to believe in something outside ourselves, even dating this phenomenon back to Neanderthal times and further. Furthermore, he takes a look at the idea of "religion" and breaks it down into its actual meaning in relation to faith. "Religion, it must be understood, is not faith. Religion is the history of faith," he is often quoted as saying.

The answer for religion, going forward, and perhaps the answer for humanity, is to "de-humanize God." Our species (most specifically Christianity) has created God in its own image, and not, as far as we know, the other way around. This creates a myriad of problems, not the least of which is the fact that if God is a human, we tend to imbue God with the same likes and dislikes that we have. When something goes wrong, we ask "How could God let this happen?" because we assume God has the same thinking processes as we humans do. 

For anyone who's ever grappled with their own religious beliefs or struggled to fit themselves (successfully or unsuccessfully) this is a worthwhile topic for investigation, eventually pointing to the idea that (if I may) all religions are one and the same, arising out of the deep human need to believe in something greater than ourselves, and that the true nature of God is completely unknowable. I think if more people got behind this kind of thinking, there would be less religion-based conflict in the world and a lot more tolerance. 

Aside from his intellectual arguments about religion, Reza Aslan is just a damn good speaker. I've never been to an author reading in which a.) the author didn't actually read out of the book (which is almost always, always too long and super boring) and b.) I was as entertained as though I'd gone to see a stand-up comic. Seriously, he's like a comedian who will actually teach you something. I've never seen Malcolm Gladwell speak but I sort of liken the two together in my mind after last night. They both are explaining complex ideas in an entertaining, highly-digestible way for the everyday, non-academic like me and most of the world.