Check this out...
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/71
As you will notice (Rick repeats this more than once in his talk), his main book has sold already about 30 million copies. Am I the only one that finds this talk (tone, words, arguments...) terribly annoying? Is this the image that christians want other people to remember when they think of Christianity?
Moreover, if Christianity is a religion that prides itself in its honest search for Truth, is this book by Rick Warren the best example of such an enterprise? According to Dan Dennett, the answer is NO:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/94
And I think his judgement on Rick's book might actually be right. What do you think?
18/11/2007
10/11/2007
Lilies
'Consider the lilies of the field' is the only commandment I have never broken
Emily Dickinson
I have, and I repent...
Emily Dickinson
I have, and I repent...
08/11/2007
Phantoms
You'll need to helpers (I will call them Julie and Mina). Sit in a chair, blindfolded, and ask Julie to sit on another chair in front of you, facing the same direction as you are. Have Mina stand on your right side and give her the following instructions: 'Take my right hand and guide my index finger to Julia's nose. Move my hand in a rhythmic manner so that my index finger repeatedly strokes and taps her nose in a random sequence like a Morse code. At the same time, use your left hand to stroke my nose with the same rhythm and timing. The stroking and tapping of my nose and Julia's nose should be in perfect synchrony'.
After thirty or fourty seconds, if you're lucky, you will develop the uncanny illusion that you are touching your nose out there or that your nose has been dislocated and stretched out about three feet in front of your face. The more random and unpredictable the stroking sequence, the more striking the illusion will be. This is an extraordinary illusion; how does it happen? I suggest that your brain 'notices' that the tapping and stroking sensations from your right index finger are perfectly synchronized with the strokes and taps felt on your nose. It then says, 'The tapping on my nose is identical to the sensations on my right index finger; why are the two sequences identical? The likelihood that this is a coincidence is zero, and therefore the most probable explanation is that my finger must be tapping my nose. But I also know that my hand is two feet away from my face. So it follows that my nose must also be out there, two feet away'.
V.S. Ramachandran, Phantoms in the Brain
This remarkable book shows, in a careful series of scientific experiments, that the logic that works within our brains is much less logic than we would like to think. In fact, if you get a chance to read the book, you will see that the experiments show much more bizarre 'logics'. Our brains seem to be filled with phantoms.
I was wondering what are we... Am I a phantom? Am I an illusion that thinks is coherent and makes sense, but only because is dreaming? Martin Heidegger dared to suggest many years ago that the essence of our beings is not in space but rather in time. Is that true? Are we who we are because we have been here some time? When I say 'I', what do I mean by that? What do you?
After thirty or fourty seconds, if you're lucky, you will develop the uncanny illusion that you are touching your nose out there or that your nose has been dislocated and stretched out about three feet in front of your face. The more random and unpredictable the stroking sequence, the more striking the illusion will be. This is an extraordinary illusion; how does it happen? I suggest that your brain 'notices' that the tapping and stroking sensations from your right index finger are perfectly synchronized with the strokes and taps felt on your nose. It then says, 'The tapping on my nose is identical to the sensations on my right index finger; why are the two sequences identical? The likelihood that this is a coincidence is zero, and therefore the most probable explanation is that my finger must be tapping my nose. But I also know that my hand is two feet away from my face. So it follows that my nose must also be out there, two feet away'.
V.S. Ramachandran, Phantoms in the Brain
This remarkable book shows, in a careful series of scientific experiments, that the logic that works within our brains is much less logic than we would like to think. In fact, if you get a chance to read the book, you will see that the experiments show much more bizarre 'logics'. Our brains seem to be filled with phantoms.
I was wondering what are we... Am I a phantom? Am I an illusion that thinks is coherent and makes sense, but only because is dreaming? Martin Heidegger dared to suggest many years ago that the essence of our beings is not in space but rather in time. Is that true? Are we who we are because we have been here some time? When I say 'I', what do I mean by that? What do you?
05/11/2007
Comprehension
Comprehension does not mean denying the outrageous, deducing the unprecedented from precedents, or explaining phenomena by such analogies and generalities that the impact of reality and the shock of experience are no longer felt. It means, rather, examining and bearing consciously the burden which our century has placed on us - neither denying its existence nor submitting meekly to its weight. Comprehension, in short, means the unpremeditated, attentive facing up to, and resisting of, reality - whatever it may be.
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
We cannot pretend to forget all that we now know - that would be lying to ourselves, going against the truth towards which we try to walk. Any religion that asks this from us, that asks us to pretend not to know that which we know, is not worth being called religion, since it goes against truth. And religion is another word to refer to our search for truth... or is it?
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
We cannot pretend to forget all that we now know - that would be lying to ourselves, going against the truth towards which we try to walk. Any religion that asks this from us, that asks us to pretend not to know that which we know, is not worth being called religion, since it goes against truth. And religion is another word to refer to our search for truth... or is it?
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