When you forcefully suppress religious nationalism, you radicalize it.

I'm interested in the origins of the religious experience, how the history of religion has evolved over the last umpteen thousand years, and where religiosity is going in the future. I think that's a topic I've been chewing on for a few years; I would love to eventually work on and produce a book out of it.

What the printing press is to Christianity in the 16th century, that's what the Internet is doing to Islam now. It has opened up the monopoly over the interpretation of Islam that used to solely belong to the religious class.

You can be a follower of Jesus and not necessarily be a Christian.

There's nothing more distasteful than an academic having to, like, trot out his credentials. You really come off as a jerk when you do that.

I think if you place Jesus firmly in the historical context... you can make very educated hypotheses and guesses about how he lived.