Sean talks with writer Liz Bruenig about faith, doubt, and the experience of believing in God in a modern, skeptical age. They discuss religious experience, the limits of science, the appeal of cynici
0:20 watched a bit but wanted to come back to this. How can anyone look at those cathedrals and not think about the wealth extracted out of these communities to build these things. Sure the artisans made money for generations but thats at the expense of someone. And its not like the church was producing a product that might justify its wealth.
Just blindly believe...ya, no. I was born and raised Christian. When I became an adult, I used my adult brain to reassess this and it was an easy decision to cast these childhood forced beliefs aside. Even if there is a "god" it's not omni benevolent. Therefore, I won't be devoting my life to that.
Did they change the name of the video to be more neutral or am i mistaken...
Because i dont remember it being a skeptic considering the case for God, I would not click this myself
Listened to it on podcast but may as well express my dismay here. Firstly the "case for god" is barely touched and it very quickly becomes an unholy muddle of faith and god and religion(s). They are separate things. God can exist without religion and vice versa. Secondly I got really impatient when she completely skirted the Chris Hitchens question with a complete non-sequitur.. Yes he was a flawed man. But his point was exactly that we are perfectly capable of doing bad things without religion but that religion is surprisingly good at making otherwise good people do bad things! Sean should have not let her get away with that. This was disappointing.
Belief in a higher power is an essential component of hope and comfort for billions of people. It doesn't matter if God is a fantasy because perception in reality for anyone's core beliefs.
Her entire defense of centuries of religiously motivated violence was, “Christopher Hitchens supported the Iraq War.” Not the most persuasive argument in favor of religious faith.
The issue I have with this is that her sources of evidence are just not available to many people, myself included. And it's extra not available to people like my partner, who is autistic.
My belief is that the only reasonable stance on God is agnosticism. I think it's arrogant to think we as humans have totally figured out the nature of reality. Whether that's something divine or purely random chance, we simply can't answer the question: why does anything exist at all?
The question i always prefer to ask is the Matt Dillahunty one - "is there any reasonable position that could not be asserted as true based on faith?" Saying yes means I can deny your truth to be real on faith and saying no means some positions are unreasonably assumed true purely on faith
This is the perfect example of how the quality of an interview is completely destroyed purely because the interviewer finds more motive to be nice than to ask real hard questions.
Mainstream media of the past sure had its faults, but the interviewers who truly challenged their guests is a dying art. The gray area is apt of a name because that’s how this interview felt. Gray. Stale. I wish she’d talk to someone who would respectfully challenge her into a meaningful conversation.
I really enjoyed this interview but I agree with some of the other commenters-- why not push a little harder on Liz's conception of God? Why a personal god? Why be christian at all if all paths go up the same mountain? Why accept all the baggage of a religion that has been coopted by the political right?
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Because i dont remember it being a skeptic considering the case for God, I would not click this myself
Mainstream media of the past sure had its faults, but the interviewers who truly challenged their guests is a dying art. The gray area is apt of a name because that’s how this interview felt. Gray. Stale. I wish she’d talk to someone who would respectfully challenge her into a meaningful conversation.