The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Religion | ≅ 2 Comments
Christopher Hitchens — he’s an irritant to the left (a big defender of the bungled Iraq war) and to the right (an atheist who wrote the controversial bestseller God is Not Great). He’s an equal opportunity polemicist. Now, in the April edition of Vanity Fair, he’s back. This time, he’s deconstructing the Ten Commandments and offering his [...]
≡ Category: Psychology, Religion, Science | ≅ 1 Comment
More and more, the Dalai Lama has been developing an interest in what modern science has to say about human emotion — or, more particularly, how neuroscience makes sense of meditation and compassion. Partly as a result, Stanford University has launched The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, which is delving deeper into [...]
≡ Category: Philosophy, Religion | ≅ 1 Comment
Bertrand Russell, the Nobel Prize-winning philosopher, mathematician and peace activist, died 40 years ago today. And so, above, we rewind the video tape to 1959, to Russell explaining why he doesn’t believe in God. This was a viewpoint that he otherwise elaborated upon in his well-known lecture/essay, Why I Am Not a Christian. For more vintage [...]
≡ Category: Religion, Yale | ≅ Leave a Comment
A quick fyi: The BBC posted a piece this past week highlighting two Yale courses that collectively offer an introduction to the Bible. One course covers the Old Testament, and the other the New. I’ve listed both below, and they otherwise appear in our online collection of Free Courses from leading universities.
Introduction to the Old Testament [...]
≡ Category: Life, Religion | ≅ Leave a Comment
The lines below are taken from Voltaire’s “Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne,” written in response to the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. Then, as now, there’s a little wisdom here for those (hint: Pat Robertson) inclined to infer moral superiority from the suffering of others.
What crime, what sin, had those young hearts conceived
That lie, bleeding and [...]
≡ Category: Philosophy, Religion, Science | ≅ 5 Comments
In this clip from Richard Dawkins’ YouTube Channel, philosopher A.C. Grayling offers an argument for why intelligent design should’t be taught alongside evolution in the classroom. Some will agree with his position, and some won’t. And probably few will have no opinion. If you have reactions to Grayling’s argument, please state them civilly and intelligently [...]
≡ Category: Current Affairs, Politics, Religion, Yale | ≅ 4 Comments
After he left office in 2007, Tony Blair went across the pond and spent time teaching at Yale. Exit Prime Minister Blair. Enter Professor Blair. During the 2008-09 academic year, Blair and Miroslav Volf co-taught “Faith and Globalization,” a course designed to help students understand the two intertwined forces shaping our world. In some ways, religion [...]
≡ Category: Religion | ≅ 4 Comments
As we mentioned last week, Karen Armstrong’s new book, The Case for God, is out. And now you can read the first chapter for free. Just click on this link, and then the book viewer on the left side of the page. It will expand, and from there you can start flipping through the pages. [...]
≡ Category: Religion | ≅ Leave a Comment
In recent years, we have seen a number of books published that have made the case for atheism: Richard Dawkin’s The God Delusion, Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great, Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation, and Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. It was almost as if a dam had broken, [...]
≡ Category: Religion, Video - Arts & Culture | ≅ Leave a Comment
The film above takes you inside the spiritual walls of Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, which hosts the Potala Palace, “the traditional winter home of the Dalai Lama and a pilgrimage destination for thousands of Buddhists.” The video runs 9+ minutes, and it’s one of many films produced by Explore.org, a web site supported by the Annenberg Foundation that combines [...]
≡ Category: Philosophy, Religion | ≅ 4 Comments
When the Dalai Lama paid a visit to Emory University, he offered an introductory lecture to Tibetan Buddhism. The lecture is not exactly what you’d normally get in the university classroom. The talk is not entirely linear. And he spends some time speaking in English, then speaks in his native tongue (with the help of an interpreter). [...]
≡ Category: Religion | ≅ 1 Comment
A good find by Kottke.org…
Jared Diamond, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs & Steel (and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed), offers a lecture at USC where he gets into the universal attributes of religions and their underlying adaptive value/social purpose. The talk runs about 41 minutes, followed by a long Q&A [...]
≡ Category: Religion | ≅ Leave a Comment
I didn’t think it would be possible, but it happened. I found my two least favorite intellectuals together on the same stage, and King’s College in NYC made it all possible. So, to mark the occasion, I bring you Dinesh D’Souza, the academy’s dressed up version of Ann Coulter, debating the ever surly Christopher Hitchens. [...]
≡ Category: Religion, Science | ≅ 3 Comments
Is there “a philosophical incompatibility between religion and science. Does the empirical nature of science contradict the revelatory nature of faith? Are the gaps between them so great that the two institutions must be considered essentially antagonistic?” These were the questions raised by Jerry Coyne, a professor at the University of Chicago, in a long [...]
≡ Category: Religion, YouTube | ≅ 1 Comment
Given that we were talking about the historical Jesus yesterday, this piece in the Utne Reader caught my eye …
What happens when you’re running a 14th century convent in Southern Spain that’s nearly broke? You could call up Jake and Elwood. Or, if you’re Mother Isabel and you run the show, you put a [...]
≡ Category: History, Religion | ≅ 1 Comment
I mentioned this course over two years ago, back when the Open Culture had about five readers. And given that the topic is hardly out of date, I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to bring it back to the surface. The course comes out of Stanford’s Continuing Studies Program (where I help give a hand). The [...]
≡ Category: Comedy, Religion, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ 2 Comments
Here we have the odd couple. The agnostic filmmaker and one of America’s most influential religious figures engaged in a lively conversation. It’s actually a rather gentlemanly exchange from the late 1960s, and it’s added to our YouTube playlist. Part 1 appears below, and you can get Part 2 here.
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≡ Category: Comedy, Religion | ≅ Leave a Comment
Stand-up comedy and Biblical creation don’t usually go together. But somehow they do for Ricky Gervais, the creator of the ever-popular television show, The Office. (Watch episodes here.) The bit runs about 10 minutes, and it’s added to our YouTube playlist.
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≡ Category: History, Religion, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Leave a Comment
Jonathan Miller’s Brief History of Disbelief is a BBC production (2005) that offers television’s first sustained look at the hidden history of atheism. The three-part documentary takes you from unbelievers within Ancient Greece, to the re-emergence of disbelief in 15th and 16th century Europe, through to the French Enlightenment, Revolutionary America and the rise of [...]
≡ Category: Religion, Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
At least in America, Charles Darwin has become the favorite whipping boy for many fundamentalists on the right. In one neat package, you get in Darwin all things deplorable. A godless “secular humanist” who denied the sanctity of humanity, God’s providence, and the integrity of the Bible. What more could you love to hate?
Somewhere lost [...]
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