He also did an interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, that is much much better: http://www.npr.org/2013/07/15/198040928/christ-in-context-ze... I read his AMA on reddit, although it was a bit shallow at points (basically every response to his response was "But you're Muslim?" which got annoying quickly. But there were a couple good points and longer discussions in there. One quote that really stuck out to me was by another commenter: If I recall correctly, a metaphor goes: there once were three flies standing outside a stained glass window. One fly saw through a green pane and described everything he saw as being green. Another saw through the red pane and said it was all red, not green. The third saw through a blue pane and stated they we're both wrong since it was obviously blue. At the end of the day, the three flies died of old age and their children inherited the debate without ever looking for themselves. Many centuries later, there is still widespread disagreement and all of the flies seem to have forgotten what it was that they even saw behind the stained glass window. I like this metaphor. A lot. Listening to the Fresh Air interview and reading the AMA paints a fascinating portrait of a religious guy, who is also a very intelligent scholar. He is self aware in his beliefs, especially his changing beliefs in his younger years.[–]oldschoolcool 1926 points 1 day ago
Yeah, I checked out that AMA too. I thought he did a nice job of answering many of the questions, which were mostly about him and his personal beliefs anyway. I hadn't heard that metaphor before and I think it said what Aslan kept saying, much more poignantly.
I kind of feel bad for the presenter. I think that she has no idea of what academic scholarship is, and am willing to bet that she is somewhat vague on Christianity as far as it's a field of study. I willing to bet that she doesn't have much respect for journalism in general, probably hoping to be tough and move up the chain. She came off as a bigoted buffon and I'm willing to bet she is. The producers should never have had her give that interview, there was no possibility that some fool anchor woman could challenge a guy like that on religion. Reza Aslan reminded me of a very tolerant teacher dealing with a passionate but dim witted student. I've sat through way too many classroom tolerance demonstrations, they are usually about this painful.
The worst interview ever has been pretty good for his sales.
Not sure if you meant that in a negative way. I really don't care, good for him. He seems like an articulate and respectable academic. I hope his book does well. EDIT: Also, academics don't get paid well enough as it is. As someone who has seen the internal economic structure of the humanities first hand, I can say that this guy has probably paid his dues to get where he is now.
I like what the Young Turks show is doing, it's cool. That said, I would have preferred to have seen the interview uncut. He did a fantastic job and it is a display of media "buffoonery".
The Young Turks is my favourite. Cenk Uygur is coming for the American media establishment. You can watch the interview uncut here.
Thanks for the link, you are right b_b it was difficult to watch. That said, he did a fantastic job keeping his cool and thinking on his feet. In fact, I may have never considered reading this book if I hadn't seen this interview, but now because of the respect he just garnered from me, I think I actually may.
r/askhistorians did a great job breaking down his book and Reza on inaccuracies and other points they had issues with. All in all though, I didn't notice them mention major credibility-destroying faults with the book.
I can see why, in the interview he is well reasoned, calm and thoughtful in the face of ignorance. That's precisely the type of person I wouldn't want to be writing on this topic.