36 Arguments for the Existence of God Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Baruch Spinoza and our BookBrowse Review of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

About this Book
A hilarious, heartbreaking, and intellectually captivating novel about the rapture and torments of religious experience in all its variety. After Cass Seltzer’s book becomes a surprise best seller, he’s dubbed “the atheist with a soul,” and becomes a celebrity. He wins over the stunning Lucinda Mandelbaum, “the goddess of game theory,” and loses himself in a spiritually expansive infatuation. A former girlfriend appears: an anthropologist who invites him to join her in her quest for immortality through biochemistry. And he is haunted by two people who ignited his passion to understand religion: his mentor and professor, and a six-year-old mathematical genius, heir to the leadership of a Hasidic sect. Each encounter reinforces Cass’s theory that the religious impulse spills over into life at large.
Through the enchantment of fiction, novelist and MacArthur “genius” Rebecca Newberger Goldstein shows that the tension between religion and doubt cannot be understood through rational argument alone. It also must be explored from the inside—from the point of view of individual people caught in the raptures and torments of religious experience in all their variety. And that can only be done from the insider perspective of fiction.
Using her gifts in fiction and philosophy, Goldstein has produced a true crossover novel, complete with a nail-biting debate, and an appendix with the thirty-six arguments (and responses) that propelled Seltzer to stardom.
Reader's Guide

1. This novel takes the reader straight to the heart of one of the major debates of the present day, the clash between faith and reason. Why do you think Goldstein decided to write about this topic in novel form, rather than non-fiction? And how is this novel in many ways a cross-over novel, both fiction and non-fiction? Do you agree that it is a cross-over novel?
   


2. Describe the title, which is also the appendix to the book in the novel, and the subtitle. What tone is the author setting for the reader before starting the book? Why this title and subtitle? What audience do you think the author is appealing to with the title?
   


3. Describe title of Cass Seltzer’s bestselling book, The Varieties of Religious Illusion. Why does the author allude to William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience? If you’ve read this book, how do the two books concern both psychology and religion?
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.