A Conversation with Barbara Bradley Hagerty

NRP Religion Correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty knew a lot about how faith affects human behavior. Growing up in a Christian Science household, Hagerty saw her mother and grandmother pray over afflictions and relate stories about times that they were healed through "right thinking." 

What Hagerty didn't know was whether or not faith was somehow ingrained in human behavior. Even after she left Christian Science (the story of her lapse is in her first chapter), the author considered herself a person of faith, who believed in God -- but was that because of God, or because of a gene, or something else she'd never considered?

The result of her inquiries into what we now know of the divine can be found in Hagerty's book "Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality," and I had a wonderful time talking with her about those results in today's featured interview. Enjoy!