One Man's Journey from Religion to Rational Philosophy
William Hagerup identified a serious contradiction between his beliefs and his identity.
When your professed beliefs conflict with who you are as a person, how do you reconcile that conflict?
That’s exactly the question William Hagerup faced as a gay Christian.
“If you have to constantly deny the reality of yourself because that’s not how you’re ‘supposed to be,’” William recalls, “then that becomes very corrosive—you feel like you have to deny yourself for the sake of the ideology you believe in.”
In the first episode of the new Reason for Living podcast, I talk to William about his journey leaving religion, his embrace of rational philosophy, the principles he’s learned through running a debating society, his fiction writing, and more.
Watch the full discussion on YouTube here:
If you enjoy the discussion, you may also enjoy the second episode, in which I talk to guitar teacher and classical composer Sam Russell about what makes music good and the fundamental principles that can enable virtually anyone to become a skilled musician:
I’ll soon be releasing episode 3, in which I talk to Anna Schnaidman about how she stays positive living under the constant threat of war, why freedom is crucial to her happiness, and how she plans to express her ideas through fiction writing. To see that, subscribe to my channel on YouTube:
As always, thank you for your support! And rest assured that regular Substack posts will continue as well! The more I can grow Reason for Living, the more time I can invest into all aspects of it.
That said, I will be a little busier than usual the next couple of weeks due to the LevelUp 2025 conference in Orlando, where I will be speaking in two sessions and selling the Reason for Living book. If you still haven’t signed up for LevelUp, you can do so here with the discount code "RFLLU25".