Genre: Opinion/Argumentation

I thought I 'd tell you a little about what I like to write . And I like to immerse myself in my topics . I just like to dive right in and become sort of a human guinea pig . And I see my life as a series of experiments . So , I work for Esquire magazine , and a couple of years ago I wrote an article called " My Outsourced Life , " where I hired a team of people in Bangalore , India , to live my life for me . So they answered my emails . They answered my phone . They argued with my wife for me , and they read my son bedtime stories . It was the best month of my life , because I just sat back and I read books and watched movies . It was a wonderful experience . More recently , I wrote an article for Esquire called -- about radical honesty . And this is a movement -- this is started by a psychologist in Virginia , who says that you should never , ever lie , except maybe during poker and golf , his only exceptions . And , more than that , whatever is on your brain should come out of your mouth . I decided I would try this for a month . This was the worst month of my life . ( Laughter ) I do not recommend this at all . To give you a sense of the experience , the article was called , " I Think You 're Fat . " ( Laughter ) So , that was hard . My most recent book -- my previous book was called " The Know-it-All , " and it was about the year I spent reading the Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z in my quest to learn everything in the world , or more precisely from A-ak , which is a type of East Asian music , all the way to Zwyiec , which is -- well , I do n't want to ruin the ending . ( Laughter ) It 's a very exciting twist ending , like an O. Henry novel , so I wo n ' t ruin it . But I love that one because that was an experiment about how much information one human brain could absorb , although , listening to Kevin Kelly , you do n't have to remember anything . You can just Google it . So I wasted some time there . I love those experiments , but I think that the most profound and life-changing experiment that I 've done is my most recent experiment , where I spent a year trying to follow all of the rules of the Bible -- " The Year of Living Biblically . " And I undertook this for two reasons . The first was that I grew up with no religion at all . As I say in my book , I 'm Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is Italian . ( Laughter ) So , not very . But I 've become increasingly interested in religion . I do think it 's the defining issue of our time , or one of the main ones . And I have a son . I want to know what to teach him . So , I decided to dive in head first , and try to live the Bible . The second reason I undertook this is because I 'm concerned about the rise of fundamentalism , religious fundamentalism , and people who say they take the Bible literally , which is , according to some polls , as high as 45 or 50 percent of America . So I decided , what if you really did take the Bible literally ? I decided to take it to its logical conclusion and take everything in the Bible literally , without picking and choosing . The first thing I did was I got a stack of bibles . I had Christian bibles . I had Jewish bibles . A friend of mine sent me something called a hip-hop bible , where the 23rd Psalm is rendered as , " The Lord is all that , " as opposed to what I knew it as , " The Lord is my shepherd . " Then I went down and I read several versions , and I wrote down every single law that I could find . And this was a very long list -- over 700 rules . And they range from the famous ones that I had heard of -- The Ten Commandments , love your neighbor , be fruitful and multiply . So I wanted to follow those . And actually I take my projects very seriously because I had twins during my year , so I definitely take my projects seriously . But I also wanted to follow the hundreds of arcane and obscure laws that are in the Bible . There is the law in Leviticus -- " You can not shave the corners of your beard . " I did n't know where my corners were , so I decided to let the whole thing grow , and this is what I looked like by the end . As you can imagine , I spent a lot of time at airport security . ( Laughter ) My wife would n ' t kiss me for the last two months . So , certainly the challenge was there . The Bible says you can not wear clothes made of mixed fibers , so I thought , " Sounds strange , but I 'll try it . " You only know if you try it . I got rid of all my poly-cotton t-shirts . The Bible says that if two men are in a fight , and the wife of one of those men grabs the testicles of the other man , then her hand shall be cut off . So , I wanted to follow that rule . ( Laughter ) That one I followed by default , by not getting in a fight with a man whose wife was standing nearby , looking like she had a strong grip . ( Laughter ) So -- oh , there 's another shot of my beard . I will say it was an amazing year because it really was life-changing , and incredibly challenging . And there were two types of laws that were particularly challenging . The first was avoiding the little sins that we all commit every day . You know , I could spend a year not killing , but spending a year not gossiping , not coveting , not lying -- you know , I live in New York , and I work as a journalist , so this was 75 , 80 percent of my day I had to do it . But it was really interesting , because I was able to make some progress because I could n ' t believe how much my behavior changed my thoughts . This was one of the huge lessons of the year , is that I almost pretended to be a better person , and I became a little bit of a better person . So I had always thought , you know , " You change your mind , and you change your behavior , " but it 's often the other way round . You change your behavior , and you change your mind . So , you know , if you want to become more compassionate , you visit sick people in the hospital , and you will become more compassionate . You donate money to a cause , and you become emotionally involved in that cause . So , it really was cognitive psychology -- you know , cognitive dissonance -- that I was experiencing . The Bible actually talks about cognitive psychology , very primitive cognitive psychology . In the Proverbs , it says that if you smile , you will become happier , which , as we know , is actually true . The second type of rule that was difficult to obey was the rules that will get you into a little trouble in 21st-century America . And perhaps the clearest example of this is stoning adulterers . ( Laughter ) But it 's a big part of the Bible , so I figured I had to address it . So , I was able to stone one adulterer . It happened -- I was in the park , and I was dressed in my biblical clothing -- sandals and a white robe -- you know , because again , the outer affects the inner . I wanted to see how dressing biblically affected my mind . And this man came up to me and he said , " Why are you dressed like that ? " And I explained my project , and he said , " Well , I am an adulterer , are you going to stone me ? " And I said , " Well , that would be great ! " ( Laughter ) And I took out a handful of stones from my pocket that I had been carrying around for weeks , hoping for just this interaction -- and , you know , they were pebbles -- but he grabbed them out of my hand . He was actually an elderly man , mid-seventies , just so you know . But he 's still an adulterer , and still quite angry . He grabbed them out of my hand and threw them at my face , and I felt that I could -- eye for an eye , I could retaliate , and throw one back at him . So that was my experience stoning , and it did allow me to talk about in a more serious way these big issues . How can the Bible be so barbaric in some places , and yet so incredibly wise in others ? How should we view the Bible ? Should we view it , you know , as original intent , like a sort of a Scalia version of the Bible ? How was the Bible written ? And actually , since this is a tech crowd , I talk in the book about how the Bible actually reminds me of Wikipedia because it has all of these authors and editors over hundreds of years . And it 's sort of evolved . It 's not a book that was written and came down from on high . So I thought I would end by telling you just a couple of the take-away , the bigger lessons that I learned from my year . The first is -- Thou shalt not take the Bible literally . This became very , very clear , early on . Because if you do , then you end up acting like a crazy person , and stoning adulterers , or -- here 's another example -- well , that 's another -- I did spend some time shepherding . ( Laughter ) It 's a very relaxing vocation . I recommend it . But this one is , the Bible says that you can not touch women during certain times of the month , and more than that , you can not sit on a seat where a menstruating woman has sat . And my wife thought this was very offensive , so she sat in every seat in our apartment , and I had to spend much of the year standing until I bought my own seat and carried it around . So , you know , I met with creationists . I went to the creationists' museum . And these are the ultimate literalists . And it was fascinating , because they were not stupid people at all . I would wager that their IQ is exactly the same as the average evolutionist . It 's just that their faith is so strong in this literal interpretation of the Bible that they distort all the data to fit their model . And they go through these amazing mental gymnastics to accomplish this . And I will say , though , the museum is gorgeous . They really did a fantastic job . If you 're ever in Kentucky , there 's -- you can see a movie of the flood , and they have sprinklers in the ceiling that will sprinkle on you during the flood scenes . So , whatever you think of creationism , and I think it 's crazy , they did a great job . ( Laughter ) Another lesson is that thou shalt give thanks . And this one was a big lesson because I was praying , giving these prayers of thanksgiving , which was odd for an agnostic . But I was saying thanks all the time , every day , and I started to change my perspective , and I started to realize the hundreds of little things that go right every day , that I did n't even notice , that I took for granted -- as opposed to focusing on the three or four that went wrong . So , this is actually a key to happiness for me , is to just remember when I came over here , the car did n't flip over , and I did n't trip coming up the stairs . It 's a remarkable thing . Third , that thou shall have reverence . This one was unexpected because I started the year as an agnostic , and by the end of the year I became what a friend of mine calls a reverent agnostic , which I love . And I 'm trying to start it as a movement . So if anyone wants to join , the basic idea is , whether or not there is a God , there 's something important and beautiful about the idea of sacredness , and that our rituals can be sacred . The Sabbath can be sacred . This was one of the great things about my year , doing the Sabbath , because I am a workaholic , so having this one day where you can not work -- it really , that changed my life . So , this idea of sacredness , whether or not there is a God . Thou shall not stereotype . This one happened because I spend a lot of time with various religious communities throughout America because I wanted it to be more than about my journey . I wanted it to be about religion in America . So I spent time with evangelical Christians , and Hasidic Jews and the Amish . I 'm very proud because I think I 'm the only person in America to out Bible-talk a Jehovah's Witness . ( Laughter ) After three and a half hours , he looked at his watch , he 's like , " I gotta go . " ( Laughter ) Oh , thank you very much . Thank you . Bless you , bless you . But it was interesting because I had some very preconceived notions about , for instance , evangelical Christianity , and I found that it 's such a wide and varied movement that it is difficult to make generalizations about it . There 's a group I met with called the Red Letter Christians , and they focus on the red words in the Bible , which are the ones that Jesus spoke -- that 's how they printed them in the old bibles . And their argument is that Jesus never talked about homosexuality . They have a pamphlet that says , " Here 's what Jesus said about homosexuality , " and you open it up , and there 's nothing in it . So , they say Jesus did talk a lot about helping the outcasts , helping poor people . So this was very inspiring to me . I recommend Jim Wallace and Tony Campolo . They 're very inspiring leaders , even though I disagree with much of what they say . Also , thou shalt not disregard the irrational . This one was very unexpected because , you know , I grew up with the scientific worldview , and I was shocked learning how much of my life is governed by irrational forces . And the thing is , if they 're not harmful , they 're not to be completely dismissed . Because I learned that -- I was thinking , I was doing all these rituals , these biblical rituals , separating my wool and linen , and I would ask these religious people " Why would The Bible possibly tell us to do this ? Why would God care ? " And they said , " We do n't know , but it 's just rituals that give us meaning . " And I would say , " But that 's crazy . " And they would say , " Well , what about you ? You blow out candles on top of a birthday cake . If a guy from Mars came down and saw , here 's one guy blowing out the fire on top of a cake versus another guy not wearing clothes of mixed fabrics , would the Martians say , ' Well , that guy , he makes sense , but that guy 's crazy ? ' " So no , I think that rituals are , by nature , irrational . So the key is to choose the right rituals , the ones that are not harmful -- but rituals by themselves are not to be dismissed . And finally I learned that thou shall pick and choose . And this one I learned because I tried to follow everything in the Bible . And I failed miserably . Because you ca n ' t . You have to pick and choose , and anyone who follows the Bible is going to be picking and choosing . The key is to pick and choose the right parts . There 's the phrase called cafeteria religion , and the fundamentalists will use it in a denigrating way , and they 'll say , " Oh , it 's just cafeteria religion . You 're just picking and choosing . " But my argument is , " What 's wrong with cafeterias ? " I 've had some great meals at cafeterias . I 've also had some meals that make me want to dry heave . So , it 's about choosing the parts of the Bible about compassion , about tolerance , about loving your neighbor , as opposed to the parts about homosexuality is a sin , or intolerance , or violence , which are very much in the Bible as well . So if we are to find any meaning in this book , then we have to really engage it , and wrestle with it . And I thought I 'd end with just a couple more . There 's me reading the Bible . That 's how I hailed taxi-cabs . ( Laughter ) Seriously , and it worked -- and yes , that was actually a rented sheep , so I had to return that in the morning , but it served well for a day . So , anyway , thank you so much for letting me speak . </content