Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Dialogue of Reason: Science and Faith in the Black Community
Dialogue of Reason: Science and Faith in the Black Community
A dialogue with Richard Dawkins, Anthony Pinn, Sikivu Hutchinson, Todd Stiefel and moderated by Mark Hatcher concerning the role of faith and science in the Black Community. Faith has traditionally played a significant role among African Americans, while science has been marginalized. It is time to confront the issues that have kept too many Blacks out of the halls of science and confined to the pews.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
The 14th Dalai Lama on Neurology, Secularism, Compassion, Technology, Affection, Inner Peace
October 14, 2010 at Stanford University
The 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) speaks on the centrality of compassion at Stanford University. He repeatedly stressed a secular approach to compassion that reaches beyond individual creeds and beliefs. He spoke of the need for mutual respect and friendship, the care and education of children, and ongoing dialogue for conflict resolution.
Apart from his religious discourses with leading practitioners from traditions like Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism, Tenzin Gyatso's long-standing interest in science and technology leads him to discussions with scientists from around the world on topics ranging from cognitive neurology to physics.
"We all have the desire to achieve happy life. And everyone have right to achieve happy life."
"Genuine friendship on the basis of trust. Trust. Come from openness. Transparent. Honest. Then trust come. On the basis of trust real friendship come."
"All religion is stemming from basic human good quality. Basic human values are secular values."
Dalai Lama and Carl Sagan in 1991"My parent illiterate. Uneducated. Just a villager. A farmer. But, very very compassionate."
"So therefor Buddhist blessing may be there, but Buddhist blessing must go through human hand- human action. So therefor, I believe, last several thousand years, we just praying, but, not satisfactory result. "
"Now something changing now. Not only material sort of development, but internal development is equally important."
Q&A starts at about 48 minutes
Stanford University:
http://www.stanford.edu/
Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford:
http://ccare.stanford.edu/node
Dalai Lama Home:
http://www.dalailama.com/
Charter for Compassion:
http://charterforcompassion.org/
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Music: Present Infant
Ani Difranco, Unplugged on Billboard, Present Infant
So I'm beginning to see some problems
With the ongoing work of my mind
And I've got myself a new mantra
It says don't forget to have a good time
Don't let the sellers of stuff power enough to rob you of your grace
Love is all over the place
There's nothing wrong with your face
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Christopher Hitchens Speaks
Christopher Hitchens speaks at Bookstore (Part 1)
Christopher Hitchens speaks at Bookstore (Part 2)
Christopher Hitchens speaks at Bookstore (Part 3)
There is a Q&A session available after the speech.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue about Belief
Sam Harris speaks to "religious liberals" in January of 2005. He informs his audience that "some of you will undoubtedly get offended", and he encourages them to notice the process - the dynamics of it. "If I say something and the walls start to go up in you I want you to remember just what it was."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 1 of 11)
"The problem I want to talk to you about tonight is the problem of belief. What does it mean to believe? We use this word all the time, and I think behind it lurk some really extraordinary taboos and confusions. What I want to argue tonight is that how we talk about belief- how we fail to criticize or criticize the beliefs of others, has more importance to us personally, more consequence to us personally and to civilization than perhaps anything else that is in our power to influence. "
"It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 2 of 11)
"What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives."
"What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons."
"The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence."
"We rely on faith only in the context of claims for which there is no sufficient sensory or logical evidence."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 3 of 11)
"When the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, it is impossible to respect the beliefs of others who don't believe as you do."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 4 of 11)
"If faith is what you have to go on, if faith is the link between your beliefs and the world at large, your beliefs are very likely to be wrong. Beliefs can be right or wrong. If you believe you can fly, that belief is only true if indeed you can fly. Somebody who thinks he can fly, and is wrong about it, will eventually discover there's a problem with his view of the world."
"Faith does not offer a strong link between our beliefs and actual states of the world."
"We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper."
"The only thing that guarantees an open-ended collaboration among human beings, the only thing that guarantees that this project is truly open-ended, is a willingness to have our beliefs and behaviors modified by the power of conversation."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 5 of 11)
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 6 of 11)
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 7 of 11)Q&A Session begins on Part 7
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 8 of 11)
"It's strange that God made Shakespeare a better writer than himself."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 9 of 11)
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 10 of 11)
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 11 of 11)
You can see one cohesive video at www.c-spanvideo.org
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 1 of 11)
"The problem I want to talk to you about tonight is the problem of belief. What does it mean to believe? We use this word all the time, and I think behind it lurk some really extraordinary taboos and confusions. What I want to argue tonight is that how we talk about belief- how we fail to criticize or criticize the beliefs of others, has more importance to us personally, more consequence to us personally and to civilization than perhaps anything else that is in our power to influence. "
"It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 2 of 11)
"What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives."
"What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons."
"The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence."
"We rely on faith only in the context of claims for which there is no sufficient sensory or logical evidence."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 3 of 11)
"When the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, it is impossible to respect the beliefs of others who don't believe as you do."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 4 of 11)
"If faith is what you have to go on, if faith is the link between your beliefs and the world at large, your beliefs are very likely to be wrong. Beliefs can be right or wrong. If you believe you can fly, that belief is only true if indeed you can fly. Somebody who thinks he can fly, and is wrong about it, will eventually discover there's a problem with his view of the world."
"Faith does not offer a strong link between our beliefs and actual states of the world."
"We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper."
"The only thing that guarantees an open-ended collaboration among human beings, the only thing that guarantees that this project is truly open-ended, is a willingness to have our beliefs and behaviors modified by the power of conversation."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 5 of 11)
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 6 of 11)
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 7 of 11)Q&A Session begins on Part 7
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 8 of 11)
"It's strange that God made Shakespeare a better writer than himself."
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 9 of 11)
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 10 of 11)
Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 11 of 11)
You can see one cohesive video at www.c-spanvideo.org
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