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We have calendars to mark time, communal spaces to bring us together, bells to signal hours of contemplation, o\\ufb03cial archives to record legacies, the wisdom of sages read aloud, weekly, to map out the right way to live \\u2015 in kindness, justice, morality. These rhythms and structures of society were all once set by religion. Now, for many, religion no longer runs the show.

So how then to celebrate milestones? Find rules to guide us? Figure out which texts can focus our attention but still o\\ufb00er space for inquiry, communion, and the chance to dwell for a dazzling instant in what can\\u2019t be said? Where, really, are truth and beauty? The answer, says historian and poet Jennifer Michael Hecht in her new book, The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives, is in poetry.

Shermer and Hecht discuss: awe and wonder \\u2022 science and religion \\u2022 the new atheists \\u2022 humanism and atheism \\u2022 secular Judaism \\u2022 replacing religion, with what? \\u2022 the original meaning of liturgy and why it\\u2019s still important \\u2022 rituals for atheists \\u2022 how to cope with loss, death, and grief \\u2022 what to say at weddings and funerals \\u2022 Alvy\\u2019s Error (the universe is expanding but Brooklyn is not) \\u2022 what we do in the hear-and-now matters, whether or not there is a hereafter (which there probably isn\\u2019t) \\u2022 love.

Jennifer Michael Hecht, a historian and poet, is the award-winning and bestselling author of the histories Doubt, Stay, The Happiness Myth, and The End of the Soul. Her poetry books include Who Said, The Next Ancient World, and Funny. She earned her PhD in history from Columbia University and teaches in New York City. Her new book is The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives.

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