Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
In live-streamed conversation with NCAS president Scott Snell, author Alan Levinovitz will discuss his book, "Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science."
Appeals to the wisdom of nature are among the most powerful arguments in the history of human thought. Yet Nature (with a capital N) and natural goodness are not objective or scientific. Natural demonstrates that these ideas are actually religious and highlights the many dangers of substituting simple myths for complicated realities. "Natural" illuminates the far-reaching harms of believing that natural means “good.”
Q&A via live chat will follow the talk.
Alan Levinovitz is associate professor of religious studies at James Madison University, where he teaches and researches a wide range of topics: classical Chinese philosophy, religion and science, and even toy design. After studying religion and philosophy at Stanford, he taught English in China for two years before returning to the University of Chicago and earning a PhD in Religion and Literature. Now he lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife, daughter, cat, hermit crabs, and an extensive collection of strange plants and unusual minerals.
In addition to his academic work on everything from the meaning of capital letters to the meaning of nonsense, his writing on religion, philosophy, and science has been featured in "Aeon," "The Atlantic," "The Washington Post," "Slate," "Wired," "The Chronicle of Higher Education," "Vox," NPR and elsewhere. He is also the author of "The Gluten Lie and Other Myths About What You Eat."
In live-streamed conversation with NCAS president Scott Snell, author Alan Levinovitz will discuss his book, "Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science."
Appeals to the wisdom of nature are among the most powerful arguments in the history of human thought. Yet Nature (with a capital N) and natural goodness are not objective or scientific. Natural demonstrates that these ideas are actually religious and highlights the many dangers of substituting simple myths for complicated realities. "Natural" illuminates the far-reaching harms of believing that natural means “good.”
Q&A via live chat will follow the talk.
Alan Levinovitz is associate professor of religious studies at James Madison University, where he teaches and researches a wide range of topics: classical Chinese philosophy, religion and science, and even toy design. After studying religion and philosophy at Stanford, he taught English in China for two years before returning to the University of Chicago and earning a PhD in Religion and Literature. Now he lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife, daughter, cat, hermit crabs, and an extensive collection of strange plants and unusual minerals.
In addition to his academic work on everything from the meaning of capital letters to the meaning of nonsense, his writing on religion, philosophy, and science has been featured in "Aeon," "The Atlantic," "The Washington Post," "Slate," "Wired," "The Chronicle of Higher Education," "Vox," NPR and elsewhere. He is also the author of "The Gluten Lie and Other Myths About What You Eat."
