Karen Armstrong : “What is Religion?”
Like all human institutions, religion is a growing and evolving phenomena. Learning how we got here is the first step towards why religion is the way it is now, and Karen Armstrong's
FORA.tv : Chautauqua Institution : Karen Armstrong: What is Religion?
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Technology lust as the new divine?
This iPad review contains the following great introduction:
In these times we have little opportunity for mystical religious experience. By “religious” I mean the feeling that something exciting is about to happen – whether after death or immediately, through the intercession of a divine being, a miracle in life. The neophilic mind has craved magic, craved the new and spectacular, since prehistory. Man deified thunder, worshiped the cave bear. Over time we have refined the impulse; we have learned to associate it with places and things of our own creation, which provoke the mystical feeling in themselves and in what they represent. Cathedrals were at once a site for worship and a site for awe, and our better natures were expressed in them for centuries.
These days a small minority of us, mostly situated in the developed world, have replaced the awe of religious experience with the awe of technological advancement. To further that line of thinking, the fanboy is, it can be argued, a new form of religious supplicant and the fanboy’s most prominent church is the Church of Apple... John Biggs
Certainly the fervour with which many devotees approach their favourite technology be it hardware or software can approach religious zeal. It is easy to see how the fading of orthodox religions and the resultant craving for substitute religious experiences leads to this. Certainly the community or community-identification aspect can work as a kind of religion replacement. However I think one does not need to be a religionist to see how overall technology worship is a poor substitute for full religion.
36 Arguments for the existence of God…
Video interview with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, a philospher and a writer, talking about her new book 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction
The interview itself is little meandering but definitely makes me want to read the book. I like how she talks about things are not as simple as the anti-god camp portrays things. Religion is much more then just god existing or not, the emotions it is based on felt by all people whether theist or atheist.
Memes : Viruses of the brain
Dan Dennett talks about ideas as mental viruses. He presents a very interesting idea: "The secret of happiness: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.". He speaks lucidly on why modern western society is a threat to fundamentalist Islamic and other traditional cultures. Dennett is one of the primary philosophers of our time, he is absolutely brillian, a great pity this talk is so short (15 minutes) he deservers at least an hour for this topic... I really need to get around to reading a few of his books
TED : Dan Dennett on dangerous memes
Too much choice makes us unhappy…
Barry Schwartz talking about something I noticed a good while ago, there are too many choices in our modern world, this results in all of us using up too much mental energy on trivialities like choosing from 15 different types of toilet paper. The modern world, and the internet especially just seems to multiply our choices daily. Past a certain amount of options, choosing anything becomes harder and harder resulting in choice paralysis. Furthermore the more options there are, the more likely you are to get buyers regret. He also states what I have discovered myself: The secret to happiness is low expectations. The higher your expectations towards a person, a product, an experience, the less likely they are to be met, the more likely you are to be disappointed...
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