Reza Aslan, the Muslim author of  Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, was welcomed warmly by Lauren Green at Fox News over the weekend. I’ll go the cynical route and guess that he knew what he was walking into and that it would be priceless promotion for his book. If so, good on him. Well played, sir. Aslan just did an Ask Me Anything at Reddit. A few exchanged follow.

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Question:

What do you think about the new direction the Pope is taking the Vatican in?

Reza Aslan:

I think this Pope is the best thing that has happened to Catholicism since Vatican II. Then again I’m biased as a proud product of a Jesuit education.

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Question:

Why did some cultures embrace monotheism, while others looked to polytheism?

Reza Aslan:

Monotheism is actually a very recent phenomenon. In the hundred thousand year history of human religious experience, monotheism is perhaps three thousand years old. That’s because the idea of a single god being responsible for both good and bad, light and dark, is something that the ancient mind had a very difficult time accepting. And no wonder! The only way that monotheism finally “stuck” is thru the concept of angels and demons. In other words, it was only when all the other “gods” were demoted into spiritual beings responsible for different aspects of the human condition that people were able to accept the idea one GOD in charge of all the lower spiritual beings.

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Question:

Serious question, if aliens visit earth, what happens to religion?

Reza Aslan:

We would simply absorb their reality into our religious traditions they we have done with every major scientific breakthrough (the earth revolves around the sun!).

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Question:

If you had to do it all over again, would you have used a pseudonym so that the focus would be more on the content of the book than on who is qualified to write it? Did you expect the media to react this way? Or did it take you by surprise?

Reza Aslan:

Yes. I would have written the book under the pseudonym: JK Rowling.