A Priest at TED Gives a Powerful Talk

[The Reality Salesman01]

Atheists and Theists alike should watch this.

[Whateverist]

Oh I like this alright. The guy has integrity in spades. He seems to want to connect his inward god to the creation of the universe et al, but at least he keeps coming back to "I don't know".

Of course, there is a sense in which this on-board god has created the world, universe .. whatever word we're up to for describing "it all". One of the mysteries of who we are is that we are each self assembling. My parents sex cells brought together novel strands of information and the being that I am stitched them together and assembled my organism just as every creature has done from the beginning. So somewhere at my core is 'the creator'. My conscious mind surely had no role to play in doing it yet it was done by something ancient which has given birth in the process to my conscious mind.

Whatever it is that has created my conscious mind also serves it by storing and bringing to consciousness appropriate memories. It draws my attention to what is significant in urgent moments. It is the basis for whatever it is I may describe as my identity/personality/self. I did not consciously create who I am, but my conscious decisions keep feeding back on how I feel about my actions. That feeling is not my conscious creation but my next action will be .. though it feels more accurate to call it a collaboration.

There is more to me than is up to me to decide. This is why we have to remember to give each other some slack. We're all new to this.

[The Reality Salesman01]

I had a feeling you would feel that way. A very refreshing approach to Theism, if you can even consider it as that. Like I was telling you, my differences with this guy are only over semantics. I very much agree with the main point that he's making. I, for one, applaud his honesty. I really liked how he set up the common defenses that would be used to counter the very objections that he was raising himself. It's clear that he has spent lots of time smoothing out these irreconcilable objections for those that seek affirmation. Nevertheless, it's refreshing to see that behind the lips of a priest that offers comforting lies for those that need to hear them, exists an honest and rational mind that can no longer pretend that the lies are true. He spoke with great passion, and so eloquently pointed out the flaws in the type of God that man has created. Every version of God that lies in the mind of it's creator is different, and to It's creator, any view that differs is not the real description of God. I showed this video to my mom, and she said that HE was confused. To her, and other fundies, this guy is very much an Atheist, and can look forward to the same hell.

[Clueless Morgan]

I didn't find the talk to be that great, personally.

It sounded the whole time to me like he was wavering on the edge of pantheism, but wants to call himself a Christian, says he doesn't know what God is, but the impression he clearly gives is that he still believes in it/Him/Them/Everything? If you don't know what something is, how it operates, where it is, or about any of its properties or how it acts on or interacts with the world, how can you claim to believe in it? I don't know what a shcnoodlehausensnausagebofer is, so how can I believe in it or claim a belief about it?

I'm confused.

[The Reality Salesman01]

I didn't find the talk to be that great, personally.

It sounded the whole time to me like he was wavering on the edge of pantheism, but wants to call himself a Christian, says he doesn't know what God is, but the impression he clearly gives is that he still believes in it/Him/Them/Everything? If you don't know what something is, how it operates, where it is, or about any of its properties or how it acts on or interacts with the world, how can you claim to believe in it? I don't know what a shcnoodlehausensnausagebofer is, so how can I believe in it or claim a belief about it?

I'm confused.

Keep in mind who he's aiming his talk at. Every word he says can potentially turn the listener off. For example, you and my mom both had different reactions to what he said, but both of you recognized that whatever he was supporting, was NOT Christianity as you know it. He literally abandoned every version of Theism. He's just talking about how we are all made of the same energy. This can't be denied.

Whateverist shared a different TED talk that dovetails what he's describing here. A woman (brain scientist), had a stroke. She describes her conscious experience of a plain of awareness that can be corroborated with the current understanding of quantum theory.
It's fascenating stuff, I would reccommend watching the Quantum movement talk on TED, followed by the woman giving her speach about her stroke experience. Watch those two videos, and then come back to this talk, and I bet you will take something completely different away from it.


Instead of harping on energy, and quantum entaglement (which I honestly don't think he is even thinking about), he's calling it God. He completely dismantles and clearly rejects all traditional ideas of the God concept, and it seemed to me, that he was treading softly with his words. To the hardcore Christian Fundie, he's an Atheist and they turn a deaf ear. To the Atheist that hopes he will give it as bluntly as possible, and just tell these religious fuck-tards once in for all that The Bible and the God it solicits is a load of shit, well, they too are disappointed. But if you listen carefully, he's much closer to promoting the latter opinion. But, he's doing it tactfully, and to some, he's an authority on the matter worth listening to.

[Bipolar Bob]

I didn't find the talk to be that great, personally.

It sounded the whole time to me like he was wavering on the edge of pantheism, but wants to call himself a Christian, says he doesn't know what God is, but the impression he clearly gives is that he still believes in it/Him/Them/Everything? If you don't know what something is, how it operates, where it is, or about any of its properties or how it acts on or interacts with the world, how can you claim to believe in it? I don't know what a shcnoodlehausensnausagebofer is, so how can I believe in it or claim a belief about it?

I'm confused.

You know pantheism is historically part of the Christian milieu.

[Bad Writer]

It's too bad that he couldn't ask the one question we all know was on the tip of his tongue: Does God even exist? Refreshing speech though. I enjoyed it, and I hope more priests and clergymen out there can start being a little more honest about the pet deities of their respective religions.

[The Reality Salesman01]

You know pantheism is historically part of the Christian milieu.

We (Morgan included), as outsiders, with an understanding of the definition of pantheism recognize that. But it would just be an argument of semantics to point that out to the Christian.

But what we call it doesn't matter because they make sense of it to themselves anyway. We have to discuss the substance of what they believe, and Pantheism/Theism is just the name of the topic. Every person that believes in God believes in the version they've created in their heads. If "energy" is all they mean by "God" then, ok. I've got no problem with that.

I've never heard of anyone worshipping energy, or denying that it exists. I've never heard of anybody killing in the name of energy. But it's being proven that our positive thoughts influence our bodies to do amazing things.

Positive thoughts produce positive results, the opposite is true for negative ones. It's being shown that just the BELIEF that stress is bad for you-is what is bad for you, and that if you can change your mindset about stress, it's actually a good thing. The stress itself is harmless, the belief is what's dangerous. If what people are doing is all in the name of doing positive things, and not doing them because they anticipate a ticket to a fantasy land or out of fear that they'll be subjected to torture by an imaginary friend in the sky, then it seems that they're actually Atheists, but by using the word "God" they are just being misunderstood due to a lack of words in their vernacular to describe such a concept. Either way, I think it's a step in the right direction.

[The Reality Salesman01]

Morgan,


Watch this:






Then this:





What do you think?

[Zazzy]

He sounds like Hal 9000.