It is an easy and entertaining setup. Recruit one fervent believer and one atheist, give them microphones, and let them have at it. And that is exactly what happened when Catholic New York Times columnist Ross Douthat debated atheist psychologist Steven Pinker on the subject, “Do we need God?” inside Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church earlier this year.

Asked by moderator Sarah Isgur whether America had replaced the tribalism of religion with the tribalism of politics, Pinker claimed, “That is not true. If that was true, then the least religious people would be the most politicized and polarized. But in fact, the most politically committed faction in the United States are evangelical Christians, and they are the most polarized in the sense of thinking the worst view of the other side.”