Religion and Spirituality

1. Religion and Spirituality Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life. -Buddha

2. Reminders: • History IA Today • Blog this Saturday, then a blog break! • Truth and Wisdom: We will begin right after break—you will have KI/Quotes/Vocab before you leave. Is anyone gone before Friday? If so, see me! • Music Today: Music of Hanukkah • Have a wonderful break!! Rest, rejuvenate, play.

4. Write a minute…or two… • What purposes do religion and spirituality serve?

5. Possible purposes: • To answer the unanswerable. • Why do people suffer? • Is death the end? • What is the meaning of life? • Where can I seek comfort? • Does the universe hold meaning? • Are our lives significant?

6. Words, words, words… • Faith • Spirituality • Religion • Sacred • Holy • Prayer • Worship • Divine • Miracle • Jot down your connection or reaction to each of these words--

7. Thomas Jefferson Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. What is he saying? http://www.ted.com/talks/questions_no_one_knows_the_answers_to.html

8. Metaphysical Beliefs • Theism: the universe is governed by an omnipotent (all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving) creator. (Islam, Christianity, Judaism)

9. Pantheism: God is everything and everything is part of God. (Hinduism, Buddhism). • Popular with scientists—God is nature and nature is God. Does that mean God’s will is also natural?

10. Atheism: denies the existence of a creator “God.”

11. Agnosticism: Neither asserts nor denies the existence of God or a higher power, but keeps an open mind about it. • Some see this as the ultimate form of sacrilege…waffling, as it were.

12. Intelligent Design: There is too much coincidence in how things “work”; order and harmony could not have come about by chance, but must have been made by an intelligent creator.

13. Pascal’s Wager

14. Physics • Scientists of physics agree that it is quite mysterious that the universe is not only orderly, but orderly in such a way that it can be mostly understood by human beingswith their limitations of knowledge.

15. Does this leave us then with only two options? 1 Intelligent Design 2Infinity of universes, earths, beings, possibilities.

17. Big Bang Ideas to Ponder • What caused the Big Bang? Could this connect to intelligent design, or at least an instigator? • “Nothing can come from nothing.” • The universe has always existed? Shrink and grow, shrink and grow….repeat. • The first “uncaused cause”—from there, everything since has had a cause.

18. Attempting to Grasp Religion • Anthropomorphism: God looks like a human. • Metaphor: God as a ‘father’. • Parable: understanding religious values by the stories told within that religion. • Example: “Good Samaritan”

19. Paradoxes/Counterclaims • Paradox of omnipotence • Paradox of change • Paradox of Suffering • Paradox of Free Will *See page 407 in your text book for more explanation.

20. Religious Experience • Are all religions founded on a bedrock of personal experiences? Is this data, then, considered empirical? Do we not consider empirical data the closest to ‘truth’?

21. Then a syllogism Empirical data is the most trustworthy and least skewed by bias. Religions are based on empirical data. Religious experiences are based on the most trustworthy and the least skewed data.

22. Try this: • Pretend the person next to you has been blind since birth. Describe the color RED to them. This is what trying to describe faith or spirituality is like. You can get close, but you have to actually experience it yourself. Is this a strength or a limitation?

23. Miracles • David Hume (1711-1776) • It’s never rational to believe in miracles because the weight of evidence is always against them. *Eye witness testimony—Human Fallibility *Error of Memory *Positive Self Bias *Confirmation Bias --As we progress with science and technology, what seems miraculous at one time will not be miraculous in the future. --The Laws of Nature do not simply STOP working. Or do they?

24. Miracles: Two sides Do the Laws of Nature Preclude the Possibility of Miracles? The Girl Who Makes Miracles (introduction)

25. If there is a God(s), why is there suffering? • Free will defense: God gave us free-will, which we misuse to cause one another pain. • What about natural suffering?

26. Suffering • Since 1500, approximately 142 million people have died in more than 600 wars around the world. • During that same time, there have been 36 genocides. • Every day: 24,000 people die from starvation.

27. Coping: We live in the best possible world. It’s a package deal—the good comes with the bad. We have to know the bad to appreciate the good. Agree, disagree? Is this God’s way of helping us grow as human? How would an atheist use the concept of suffering?

28. Faith • St. Paul: the conviction of things hoped for and the assurance of things not seen. • Thomas Aquinas: Faith and Science carry equal and complementary ways of seeking truth. • Freud: believing a proposition without sufficient evidence. Religion is a form of escapism. • There are not logical syllogisms in religions.

29. Is Faith Rational? • Which is stronger? Faith based on Evidence or faith without evidence? • Is faith more pure than religion? Because religion is a man-made organization of ‘believers’, is it too faulty?

30. Science Vs. Religion • Confirmation Bias: Atheists find proof of no God everywhere; Theists will find proof of God everywhere. • Religion attempts to answer HOW, Science attempts to answer WHY. (agree?)

31. If no truth or fact can ever be proven, we can be certain of nothing. Can it be argued that there is an element of faith built into all knowledge claims/areas of knowledge? • Why does faith feel like such a risk? Why do we call it a “leap of faith”?

32. A few world religions: Jigsaw • Find out: • Number of believers • Region of the world • Major tenets/laws/beliefs • Leaders and prophets • Stereotypes • Major events • Christianity • Islam • Hinduism • Buddhism • Judaism

33. Jigsaw: share with the class so that the picture is more complete The Blind Men and the Elephant John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) It was six men of Indostan To learning much inclined, Who went to see the Elephant (Though all of them were blind), That each by observation Might satisfy his mind. The First approached the Elephant, And happening to fall Against his broad and sturdy side, At once began to bawl: "God bless me! but the Elephant Is very like a WALL!" The Second, feeling of the tusk, Cried, "Ho, what have we here, So very round and smooth and sharp? To me 'tis mighty clear This wonder of an Elephant Is very like a SPEAR!" The Third approached the animal, And happening to take The squirming trunk within his hands, Thus boldly up and spake: "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant Is very like a SNAKE!" The Fourth reached out an eager hand, And felt about the knee "What most this wondrous beast is like Is mighty plain," quoth he: "'Tis clear enough the Elephant Is very like a TREE!" The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said: "E'en the blindest man Can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can, This marvel of an Elephant Is very like a FAN!" The Sixth no sooner had begun About the beast to grope, Than seizing on the swinging tail That fell within his scope, "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant Is very like a ROPE!" And so these men of Indostan Disputed loud and long, Each in his own opinion Exceeding stiff and strong, Though each was partly in the right, And all were in the wrong!

35. World Religions • Is one true and the rest are false? • Are any religions “more right”? • What happens when we believe that no other religion is valid other than our own? • Is religion simply a conditioning of cultural practices?

36. BEWARE • Differentiate between elements, statements, and stories that are meant metaphorically and those that are meant literally! • Humility: we cannot practice wisdom without humility. Keep an open heart and mind. We are less likely to kill each other that way.

37. Are faith and religion a pathway to truth and wisdom? • Is religion instinctual? If so, what aspect of survival does it serve? (See Karen Armstrong Ted Talk)

38. Mustafa Akyol: Faith versus tradition in Islam • Journalist Mustafa Akyol talks about the way that some local cultural practices (such as wearing a headscarf) have become linked, in the popular mind, to the articles of faith of Islam. Has the world's general idea of the Islamic faith focused too much on tradition, and not enough on core beliefs?

39. Jonathan Haidt: Religion, Evolution, Self-Transcendence • Psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks a simple, but difficult question: why do we search for self-transcendence? Why do we attempt to lose ourselves? In a tour through the science of evolution by group selection, he proposes a provocative answer.

40. Metaphysical BIG Questions • Can we answer the question: What is the nature of God(s)? • What is God’s responsibility to his/her creations? • What evidence could convince you that God does exist (if you do not believe) or that he doesn’t exist (if you do believe)?

41. Ways of Knowing • Language: • Can we describe faith in human language? • Emotion: • Is religion/faith more an emotional outlet and connection than anything else? Do we use it to allay our fears and confusion? • Reason/Logic: • What fallacies are often present in religious controversy and debate? • Sense Perception: • Are there senses that religious/spiritual people have that unspiritual people do not?

42. Areas of Knowing: YOU write the knowledge issues! • Math • N. Science • H. Science • Ethics • History • Art

43. Recommended Further Reading: • The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav • Metaphysics, physics, transcendence • The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

44. TedTalks Alain De Botton: Atheism 2.0 What aspects of religion should atheists (respectfully) adopt? Alain de Botton suggests a "religion for atheists" -- call it Atheism 2.0 -- that incorporates religious forms and traditions to satisfy our human need for connection, ritual and transcendence.

45. Karen Armstrong: Charter for Compassion • People want to be religious, says scholar Karen Armstrong; we should help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help build a Charter for Compassion -- to restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.