Q: When The Handmaid's Tale was published, Contemporary Authors listed your religion as ‘Pessimistic Pantheist,’ which you defined as the belief that ‘God is everywhere, but losing.’ Is this still an accurate description of your spiritual philosophy?

A: I expect you don't have the foggiest what I meant in the first place. On bad days, neither do I. But let's argue it through.

In the Biblical version, Genesis — God created the heaven and the earth — out of nothing, we presume. Or else out of God, since there was nothing else around that God could use as substance.

Big Bang theory says much the same, without using the word ‘God.’ That is: once there was nothing, or else ‘a singularity.’ Then poof. Big Bang. Result: the universe.

So since the universe can't be made of anything else, it must be made of singularity-stuff, or God-stuff — whatever term you wish to employ. Whether this God-stuff was a thought form such as a series of mathematical formulae, an energy form, or some sort of extremely condensed cosmic plasma, is open to discussion.