What happens when we keep asking questions about truth—and remain open to where they lead?

Hi, I'm Stefani.

My work focuses on questions about truth:
how we know it, the role our values and identity play in it, and whether following it far enough might lead us to God.

(Today, I think it does; until recently, I did not.)

I am also keenly interested in what it means to have faith, and how to have ethical and productive conversations about it.

I became obsessed with these questions shortly after my eleventh birthday when I slung my orange backpack over my shoulders, trekked to the local library, and discovered Aristotle in the darkest and dustiest corner. I began looking for answers to the anxiety I felt about death.

That search led me into a deep love for science, then atheism, and then—improbably—to seminary as an atheist, resulting in some of the most illuminating years of my life. Still an atheist, I went on to Oxford and Harvard, spending the next fifteen years studying truth, meaning, and faith in the modern world.

Today, I’m lucky to have a full-time writing career. I spend most of my time working on my next book, Letters to a Young Atheist.

In my spare time, I am exploring a new research project on the ethics of apologetics.

What I do

I write.
I write books and essays about truth, faith, doubt, and the strange business of figuring out what we believe. My most recent book, The Certainty Cure, on truth, learning, and navigating differences, is available most places books are sold. My most recent essay about faith, The Sacred Work of Doubt, is published at Plough; my most recent essay about the ethics of dialogue and belief is at The Hill. My current project, Letters to a Young Atheist, is a series of ten letters to my younger self. It invites curiosity about cultural perceptions of reality, knowledge, evil, sin, and what it means to be a good person.

I speak.
I give talks and join conversations about faith, reason, intellectual humility, understanding across difference, and the pursuit of truth. Most recently I spoke at the University of Pennsylvania about the value of intellectual humility for spiritual growth. I also shared thoughts on having difficult conversations about our beliefs with Weave: The Social Fabric Project. I’m especially interested in creating space for people to ask difficult questions and explore answers without judgment, fear, or shame.

I teach and converse.
Through podcasts, interviews, classes, and public conversations, particularly at universities in the US and UK, I explore how we can think more carefully and form ethical beliefs about the questions that matter most. This interview with Blake Bottrill contains some of my thoughts on the ethics of truth. This interview with Jana Harmon shares some of my thoughts on the ethics of belief and faith.

with Harvard GSE students after a dialogue event at Wasserstein Hall

Research & writing questions

My research and writing focus on the metaphysics and ethics of truth. I explore questions like:

What are the psychological, biological, and social drivers of belief?
Are we ever justified in claiming certainty? If so, about what?
Are we ever justified in claiming God gives us knowledge?
What subconscious assumptions do individuals and groups make about truth, goodness, evil, sin, human nature, knowledge, physical reality, and ultimate reality?
How do we stay sane and grounded in our belies while also open to learning and growth?

My Approach

My work is interdisciplinary because I believe we have the greatest potential for learning and growth when we widen, rather than narrow, our view.

I am, to use the technical term, a radical empiricst. This means I hold all beliefs against evidence, including but not reduced to scientific observation.

I never work without taking the biological, psychological, and social conditions into account. We must start with understanding ourselves, our feelings, our minds, and our bodies, if we wish to understand our beliefs and assess the quality of our truth claims.

I entered the world of scholarship an atheist and eliminative materialist. Through curiosity and relentless openness to where questions might lead, I became open to metaphysical interpretations of reality that extend beyond what we can see and touch. I believe religious and otherwise transcendent experiences constitute legitimate evidence, so long as they are interpreted in light of who we are as biological, psychological, and social beings.

I believe emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and commitment to understanding our own biases are our greatest assets in the quest for truth.

formal dinner at Linacre College, Oxford

Letters to a Young Atheist

While I am writing Letters to a Young Atheist, the book, I am also publishing individual letters on Substack (click to view below, or sign up to receive future letters via email here) and videos on YouTube.

Scholarly publications (selected)

“The Saving Order of Science: Sam Harris’s Scientism as Affective Attachment to a Salvific Epistemology.” Eidos: A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 8, no. 2 (2024): 27–60.
Salvation Through Science Alone: The Soteriological Potntial of Science in Case Studies of Ursula Goodenough, Sam Harris, and EO Wilson. Doctoral thesis examined by Graham Ward and Simeon Zahl. Supervised by Alister McGrath and Donovan Schaefer.
“To Naturalize is to Differentiate: Cognitive Science and Plural Accounts of Religion.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 30, no. 1 (2018).
“Metaphysics Matters: Soteriology in Religious Naturalism.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 50, no. 2 (2014).

Popular writings (selected)

The Certainty Cure: Heal Polarization and Grow in an Age of Addicton to Being Right

(On the Way Books, 2025)

Simone Weil and the Sacred Work of Doubt

(Plough Magazine, 2025)

Stop Trying to Win Thanksgiving

(The Hill, 2025)

Confessions of an Atheist Philosopher (Parts I-VI)

(Seen & Unseen, 2023)

Get In Touch

I’d love to connect.