Chris Hedges: What is Religion?

Chris Hedges: What is Religion?

[@christopherrobbins9985]

One of the best speeches I've heard yet on the role of religion. Distinction between irrational and non-rational was clarifying. Science is great with evidence and empirical data...but it is lost when turned inward to examine: love, charity, hope, mortality, grief, despair etc.

[@peterandjoycevanbreemen600]

I always listen to Chris hedges.

[@vladdrac88]

My personal opinion : There is some universal version of the "Collective Unconscious". It is stuck with 'immortality' and so seeks to build a place that is without pain and sorrow. It seeks for ways of being that will enable it to build this place without pain and sorrow so that it might enjoy the 'infinite art' of the universe. Genuine love, that rare and often not requited emotion, drives it. One day it will get there and all of us with it. We are all fragments of it. It is us.

[@dirtyhappiness]

he's perfecty right on basically everything

[@neoiko]

I like Chris - one of the smartest people I've encountered... with a way of being unerringly right. The trouble I have with religion is that so much of it seems to be to do with telling other people what to do. And he says that "dogma/doctrine" isn't what religion is about... sorry - it kindof is. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be a problem.

[@robreich6881]

Liberalism (with a small l in the European sense) is about telling other people what they are allowed to do too. - You can’t think or articulate any thoughts that might offended some sacred protected class of people. - You can’t associate with people of your own ancestry or exclude those who aren’t in any meaningful way. - You can’t tell the truth is probably the most important taboo of modern society.

[@mazardeus]

Hedges is the only man who gets religion right!!!

[@smithebo]

Religion right but God wrong

[@Mike-md7op]

Yeah, after thousands if years of human history it finally took an American journalist to understand religion. Give me a break. Nothing Hedges says here is original. He is simply espousing standard liberal Christian viewpoints that have been around for the better part of two centuries at this point.

[@mazardeus]

@@Mike-md7op You obviously do not get the perspective Hedges is getting at. His criticism is from organized religion only. To be more specific, Republican-sponsored evangelical Christian fascism. Religion is not the problem. Organized religion is. Nobody has provided such a fresh perspective, because the so-called standard liberal Christians have failed to criticize the right-wing Christian fascists. Instead, they embrace corporate Christianity. Not many voices have expressed such a truth. Sam Harris and the other atheists like Christopher Hitchens got their @$$ whooped by Hedges.

[@Mike-md7op]

@@mazardeus Is it organized religion as such that is a problem or just a specific type of organized religion? Organized religion has existed throughout human history and to simply state that organized religion "as such" is a problem is a huge claim. As far as I can see Hedges represents the contradictions inherent in liberal Christian thinking. He claims in various places that Jesus may not have existed and that Heaven and Hell, Angels and demons, miracles, etc. are all products of "magical thinking" and then he turns around and says we need to take religion seriously. If religion is nothing but a fabric of lies then why should anyone take it seriously? Or, if religion can be reduced to nothing but a moral code, which is all Hedges seems to think religion is, I don't see why I cannot just become a humanist and adopt a humanist moral code. Why particularly should I adopt a Christian moral code if Christianity is saddled with two thousand years of baggage based on "magical thinking?"

[@mazardeus]

@@Mike-md7op Did you even read what I just wrote? I have been quite clear with you that organized religion merged with State government is the problem. This Christian fascism has been negatively affecting the world since colonial Europe. These are legitimate criticisms of organized religion. The existence of God, Heaven, and Hell are a greater waste of time to pursue when it comes to religion. Historically, religion was far more about that. It explores art, literature, culture, and human morals. We are better off embracing such things to improve ourselves. Chris Hedges never demanded you to become a Christian over anything else. You are free to be a humanist all you want. Yet you should credit where credit is due for the good things that come with religion (not organized religion), or else you violate your own humanist principles. You have already violated it with your narrow-minded generalizations about Christianity as "two thousand years of baggage."

[@MyLaura33]

Nature, ecology, environment, all living beings that make up the tapestry of life on earth, all interconnected and critical to the health of biodiversity..that's where the living Gd resides for me. The living Gd is the breath of life that binds every living being by an umbilical cord, like the roots of trees or mushrooms we can't see but we know are there.

[@almilligan7317]

Mr. Hedges is one of the great Theologians today. I place him next to Eugene Peterson on my book-shelf.

[@unkmonk1]

LOL, "greatest theologians"-which means about as much as the greatest astrologer or greatest palm reader.

[@pappapiccolino9572]

Thank God for Chris Hedges. This short clip is just spot on, so correct in every way.

[@generiddell8627]

God made Man in his image, and Man returned the favor.

[@shway1]

that's so ridiculous and nonsensical I can't believe chris didn't come up with that!

[@matthewkopp2391]

@@shway1it’s not ridiculous. It is the essence of the Isaiah criticism of idolatry. An anthropomorphic God idea is idolatry.

[@shway1]

@@matthewkopp2391 idc about your superstitious rules

[@stanfortner8288]

The BEST explanation of religion ( especially under 10 min) I have ever heard! Thank you.

[@MenOfLetters]

A great thinker.

[@contacter]

Hedges is spot on, but you cannot reason with people who (psychotically) take their instructions directly from God.

[@jtoneal3344]

Very thought provoking ... excellent

[@AdamSzm]

Very smart man.

[@marqgoldberg7454]

As an atheist I must reply that it's difficult to distinguish between the non rationale and the irrational when 85% of people deal with the non rational irrationally.

[@needlepoints]

Religiosity is a matter of Orientation, just as Sexuality is.

[@cyberpup1000]

Most thought provoking Chris!

[@lyndasheridan9018]

He is a world teacher and we must absorb his knowledge 🧙‍♀️ save the earth 🌍

[@ruvstof]

Like it very much.

[@BeBopScraBoo]

there are plenty of societies around today with a code of ethics and without a god.

[@rudolfboukal1538]

It is a shame that this does not have millions of views - those "missed" views have landed to all the garbage that is also on the WWW. Hedges is spot on, and it is a relief to hear him verbalize my own thoughts and sentiments. Thank you for posting this.

[@bendoesdabs8672]

Pretty good lecture

[@johnriso4323]

Interesting....

[@nolawnnate5934]

Freud's "The Future of an Illusion" deals with these very questions of religion, that there is a fundamental difference between an error and an illusion. He reminds us that errors are miscalculations, while religion is of a different incalculable nature. As in a dream, religion is an illusory world of desire and repugnance, so Freud is in his element, and Future of an Illusion is one of his later texts. Freud wrote that there is a fundamental will behind an illusion that pervades religion, a desire inside religious structures and the desire as the powerful force of religion. Religion as an illusion which resolves the desire for answers to higher, gnawing, nonrational questions. The illusion revelation is healing, yet there are powerful, unresolved implications

[@AudioPervert1]

Chris Hedges tells the truth as is.

[@icecreamforcrowhurst]

As I understand it Mr. Hedges is an ordained Presbyterian minister. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but what he is saying here strikes me as incompatible with mainline Protestantism. Am I wrong about this? I am genuinely perplexed

[@chrisray9653]

He became a Presbyterian minister because he had credits from 30 years ago and needed health insurance so he finished his degree. Some Presbyterian denominations are so liberal they will allow someone with nonorthodox beliefs like him to be a minister.

[@aldojackson3242]

Just because the divine does not hold an anthropocentric world-view, doesn't mean that they can't play a role on the world stage, to further their plans and stratagems. There are many factions both within and without of the divine, and we find our way to the one that suits us best, and fulfill the appropriate plan as best we can. Diplomacy is important for resolving these questions.

[@Monkismo]

Ultimately, most people's "faith" is just them believing what they want to, usually something that makes them feel more special or more important without doing actually doing anything. While I generally agree with Hedges, I think he falls into the same trap of cherry-picking that any religious fascist does. He constantly refers to "the Gospel" as the only important part of the Bible so he can ignore the parts that are embarrassing.

[@eltoncostello7357]

5:00 "Without hope you are driven into the arms of demagogues and charlatans"

[@bammbamm12]

Oh. You're back? How's the fire?

[@williamforrest4371]

MAKE BELIEVE IS religion 100%

[@davidlamb7524]

Heavy conclusion !

[@pammccoy4331]

I love truth and am a seeker of truth. I studied different religions and came to the conclusion that it is all the same crap, it is just in different piles.

[@givemeabreakplease7415]

Its not his day to die yet, everyone has a date, time and place to die.........He had an armors and body guards doesn't mean he was safe from God, he was safe because his time ain't up yet

[@tippersnore4012]

I don't see how Bolivian Catholicism and French Catholicism as practiced by those who truly believe do not share certain dogma versus perhaps those who enjoy a Catholic identity or enjoy rituals for the nostalgic feeling. By non-rational I take Hedges to mean that which cannot be circumscribed by reason and logic versus irrational which perhaps here means that which can easily be disproved or debunked by reason and logic. Ex. of the second) a certain belief that the Earth is 6,000 years old: irrational based on geologic evidence like carbon dating etc. Ex. of the first) loud driving music thrills me every time I hear it: no definitive answer as to why.

[@johnellis5768]

True religion is the only way to enlighten society of the purpose for this life. For unless the only purpose of life is to seek all pleasure, avoid all pain and maximize the glory and power of wealth, the purpose of this world has to be to prove the harm in it.

[@patrickmccormack4318]

Great video. Hell is the void, the state of nothingness. I've just p/u his latest work. America: The Farewell Tour, 2018

[@bourne2crimson397]

There is somethin' I really don't get: since we are being implored to regard religion as allegorical, how are we supposed to take verses in Leviticus about stoning homosexuals to death? Or instructions to strike your wives in the Qur'an? What about these verses and commands that are ENTIRELY literal?

[@Teakwood11]

The personal God is realized within us at the same moment the universal God is. No other person is going to think, feel and act in exactly the same way following this experience. Therefore, a great flaw of religion has always been due to the assumption that everyone following it is the same. In the state of being one with a personal God (atonement or apotheosis), the phrase "organized religion" becomes an oxymoron and we each become a church of one. Then we can allow everyone else around us to come to the same realization by following their own way rather than going to great extremes, as so many followers do, to emulate those they consider leaders.

[@shway1]

that's a very long way of saying it's all in your head.

[@matthewkopp2391]

@@shway1The experience of God is not experienced as „all in your head“. We can make that conclusion afterwards and conform to that material reductionist point of view, but the experience is not that, because it is not the experience of the personal ego. It is the experience of something greater than the personal ego, that truly transcends it, and can not be contained by it. So I can say, this was all in my head, and perhaps that modern convention is correct, but I question that. What I do know is an experience of God is empirically real. If it is just a reflex of the psyche then OK, but it is something that refashions the entirety of your sense of being and has you know there us something greater than your personal ego.

[@shway1]

@@matthewkopp2391 yeah, this entire word salad is all in your head

[@lauragabriel7095]

I absolutely believe what he is saying.

[@shway1]

it's just vague nonsense to support his vestigial religious identity. he doesn't really believe in god. of course emotions aren't rational, that's not religion.

[@andrewahonen6721]

@@shway1 he expressly stated he does NOT believe in God. He's not embracing or promoting a "vestigial religious identity", he's embracing human consciousness and subjective experience

[@shway1]

and yet he keeps talking about religion

[@andrewahonen6721]

@@shway1 so?

[@shway1]

he's clinging on to this vestigial religious identity and using it as a counter to the minority of right wing atheists he ironically accuses of generalizing muslims

[@mm1979dk]

Yes, many people abstain from analyzing love, but there is a reason why it exists (its existence is the first clue that it somehow makes sense). Iterated prisoners dilemma has a solution where each participant is interested to pay forward (it looks irrational, but it pays off and thus it is rational thing to do). So in short: it works, but one does not need to understand it in order for it to work.

[@TheDreamMechanic]

Love is much more than unconditional hope; although unconditional hope isn't necessarily a bad thing. Love is indeed non-rational. It cannot be quantified or rationalized in any empirical manner, and that's a good thing. It boils down to basic psychology, as dictated by the two hemispheres of the brain. It's common knowledge that one governs rational thought, the other non-rational. It makes no sense to effectively castrate half of one's intelligence. It renders one a - literal - half wit.

[@lenblack1462]

There's a little god in all of us. In fact, you might say that all of us together created god.

[@shway1]

this comment section is such a gold mine for vacuous new-agey nonsense

[@tsg2009]

watch zeitgeist the movie documentary on Google it shows how religions were made

[@Israel2.3.2]

I agree that religion can provide a holistic solution to the existential void many of us face. I also agree that dogma doesn't completely determine a religious man's view of the world. That being said, many modern religious institutions like Catholicism draw their communal practices from the words of men like Paul of Tarsus, a man who chose to consolidate power rather than to encourage open debate in his newly founded Corinthian congregation. Many modern institutions have inherited such unhealthy attitudes towards dissent and we are the worse for it. Perhaps my criticism is better levied at the systemic structures that stifle the growth of populace intellectualism rather than at religion itself but this culture of snuffing out is a vital tool of consolidation for many religious movements. There needs to be a thorough examination of the relation between keeping tradition on the hand and stifling dissent on the other, therein lies the core of political and pastoral responsibility and I'd wager that most religious movements lean more towards irresponsibility because their existence depends on it.

[@robertlight5227]

A smart guy explaining a dead ideal.

[@yournotright101]

@leiberfrasmilch They also often believe god is on their side as well.

[@bozolazic]

Cross and Christians,end to end,I examined.He was not on the Cross.I went to the Hindu temple,to the ancient pagoda.In none of them was there any sign.To the uplands of Herat I went,and to Kandahar.I looked.He was not on the heights or in the lowlands.Resolutely,I went to the summit of the mountain of Kaf.There only was the dwelling of the[legendary] Anqa bird.I went to the Kaaba of Mecca.He was not there... I looked into my own heart.In that, his place,I saw him.He was in no other place. ~Rumi

[@idicula1979]

I believe almost eveything he says.

[@olvidomemoriahistori]

Regarding your reflection upon religion and the strong and deep thought of Doistoyevski hell it seems that, anyway we are still trapped in the hermeneutic circle, it is true that hell is lack of love, nevertheless, this makes us question all of us in relation to what we have been thought of what love is. For the same author, in Karamazov Brothers, Dimitri was the passionate whose options took him to despair, nevertheless when the saint man Zossima , was in front of all of all the family, he kneel to Dimitri, not the saint Alisha or Ivan the intellectual. So life has show me that despair and anxiety come out of the lack of a sincere and spontaneous meaning of love. To be married and have a family is not equal to love, to have lovers is not equal to love. My common sense tells me that is not hurting others the first possibility of love, nevertheless you have Paolo and Franscesca in Dante's hell, they prefer hell than being apart. Organized religions have a lot of functions political, economic, and their 'power' is based as any other terrenal power on their capacity to manipulate people. Religion is an emotion, sometimes it makes you free but most of the time makes form part of an institution that grants security. If religious people did what the jesus thought, the world be different, is not only on the contraceptive or abortion issue, that you could find that some religious persons don't follow what organized religions said, but in elemental questions such what makes possible the dignity of man and woman. I live in a border city, between Mexico and the US, we have a lot of the corporations that move from Detroit to Juarez for cheap labor, they paid workers around 60 dollars a week, being the minimum wage 6 dollars per 8 house of work. A city burden with poverty and a huge difference between rich and poor, and you hardly hear the voice of Christians whatever might be their denomination. So our present is very uncertain, what is left to common citizens of good will?

[@Teakwood11]

You don't have to understand the mystery. You are the mystery. This is not a concept to be grasped intellectually. It is a statement which emerges from within the state of intuitive feeling/knowing that occurs when one has followed the structures and pathways that religions provide.

[@Teakwood11]

+charley coryn yep exactly. please see my subsequent comment below.

[@weirdisspeltweird]

More agnostic

[@doyline45]

St James 1:27.

[@notrombones5041]

If Humans are created in God's image, and are capable of evil, then does that mean God contains evil to some degree?

[@gioandgulaze]

***** God is not created by humans, humans are created by God that's why God is not Anthropomorphic its humans that are like God and the Bible attests to that. Since humans are like God that means humans have the capability and the flexibility to divert towards both evil and good, or towards being stupid like you are. If not then we would be not like God by like slot machines. So its not about containing evil its about diverting towards it.

[@notrombones5041]

I wonder if God loves Billionaires more than the average person. Nah. That would be petty.

[@gioandgulaze]

***** Ofcourse humans are created in God's image, and capability to make mistakes has nothing to do with that at all. When you say supernatural you have to know what 'natural' is in the first place, and the fact is that you have not got event the slightest clue what natural is, especially what natural was before the creation of the universe, you are just projecting your personal prejudices upon the definition of natural and supernatural. Also when you talk about evidence it just shows you have no clue what religion or belief in God is all about, you have no idea what the nature of collecting evidence is and what constitutes as 'evidence'. So you need to go through some basics first.

[@shway1]

The answer is in the video. There is no god.

[@cottagepainter6564]

Thats not the answer at all. God is a metaphor that we use in an attempt to describe the sacred and the holy. The good and the evil. God is found in those things that are greater than ourselves. Don't let yourself be suduced by the children's story that is 'man in the sky keeping track. It's only been elevated to the status of 'take it seriously' because of society-wide greed and stupidity. This is the moral in the story of the Golden Calf. Beware of images for they deceive us so easily.

[@ByChoiceMuslim]

Is Chris hedge a Deist?

[@chrisray9653]

He was asked that by Tom Hartman, and Chris responded no because deism lends itself to nature worship.

[@stratocaster1986able]

@feldagriff He is clearly a Spinozan.

[@TheDreamMechanic]

Regarding his position on atheists, he always (that I've seen or heard) been sure to mention the "new" atheists in relation to these problems, and for good reason. The same techniques are being employed by both sides of the "debate"...a debate about which neither side has an answer. Engaging in that type of divisive, conflagratory rhetoric (particularly in light of them saying there's no such thing as free will) should be held in the highest suspicion.

[@RemoteViewr1]

That is the gulf between awareness and the infinite. It cannot be bridged. Its such a pure catch 22.I have seen more of God in the belief's of self identified atheists. Isn't is Maslow's posit that the orginiator of a faith has no dogma, no need of a cathetcism to study, has an unmediated experience of God that is essentially nontransmissable? At the risk of the worst arrogance and insolence, I can see you keep your own counsel, may I recommend Man's concious Search for God by Victor Frankel?

[@leiberfrasmilch]

Intellectuals read ,study,observe the world around them then proclaim God is a metaphor that is just a guide for man but within man is the absolute determinant .I don't agree . The problem is what makes one mans morals offensive to the human condition and another mans morals a betterment to life.Both sides in a conflict always believe they are the moral side.The world and man are in a struggle,as in to be or not to be.

[@randomkiliinterviews9453]

So he does believe in transcendent forces?

[@television1088]

I assure you it's quite possible to reach wisdom without traveling through bullshit.

[@marykinuthia6067]

He does not believe in a God but wants to teach people greatness.

[@theshunzun]

@masusomasuso listen before you respond.

[@cornemusa]

Sorry, Ron Vetter, regardless of how much it may distress you, "God", as we define this word, is indeed a human creation; certainly the God of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) is a human construction. I suspect the gods of the Hindus, Amerindian, African, Polynesian/Pacific religions are also constructed and not based on empirical knowledge. When a person "seeks God" they do so, typically, by reading the Bible, which is a human creation. Or one can do it by following the pleasant thoughts in one's mind that confirm what one wants. Some people call this "listening to the still, soft voice" or simply "listening to God". Sorry, Ron, that doesn't qualify as reality.

[@SuperSpeedMonkey]

A theist who doesn't believe in god? I don't get it...

[@fritz1218]

The great missing of the point continues. Christianity in all its faults is like other religions, period; but (semicolonically!) at the dangerous, insanely beneficent core of what Christianity carries with it, there is a verification of an all-embracing love's reality, a verification which is as far removed from any mere wishful believing as it is from mathematical proof. But it's there, and so Christianity will keep popping up pretty much forever, even though only a handful will ever know Y.

[@thelaymaneveryman]

I like Hedges in some ways. I have to disagree. It always boils down to we don't understand so we will make something up to explain it. Right now he is talking about love etc..But there was a time whem religion explainned the natural world to people who needed an explanation.It was not natural causes that made the rivers flood every year to grow crops it was some god orchestrating the flood if said god(s)was appeased with the humans.We may never know what something is but we should search it out

[@CSUnger]

“I don’t believe in a God” Christopher Hedges Then why am I consulting you about religion?

[@BlantonDelbert]

Is the "non-rational" that Mr. Hedges refers to is God? What is the non-rational?

[@feldagriff]

He believes in God, but God doesn't interact with humans, and all religions, scriptural texts, and concepts of God are man made. But ... since there are non-rational (but importanat) elements to our lives, such as: love, beauty, search for meaning, mortality, grief and allienation ... and because these things are not clearly definable through science ... that we must use a non-rational means, specifically religion, to explore them. Finally, those who do not share this view are less than human.

[@wildhias]

i think it's just a way of saying they had no clou about the cosmos - and without some sort of science it seems "obvious" that the world is flat

[@Stewie4321]

I thing Religion should be thought of as a hazard in the same vein as drugs and gambling. I can understand people wishing to explore thoughts of mortality, morality, love and hatred........but don't brand it . Philosophy already has it covered and leave it at that ........otherwise hustlers the likes of Ted Haggard crawl out from under every rock. Chris Hedges is a powerful thinker and with Chomsky, Frankenstein, and many others provide all the moral stimulation I need.

[@wavegeekman]

Yes. "Got is a metaphor." For what? For God? The non-rational but not irrational - what does it mean, if anything?

[@lawrence9506]

Hedges religious superstition does not diminish his message.

[@RaqueLauren]

His thesis is unclear from this clip but it seems to be that religion is a necessary evil needed to explain and understand the human condition? I wholeheartedly disagree. The problem with religion is not in the details. It is in the simple act of "believing." The chasm between "believers" and "non believers" is so wide that it causes serious societal rifts. I hate the term atheism because that is another form of belief. The belief in nothing spiritual. The reality is we don't know. We aren't supposed to know. And even if we could know our tiny little human brains couldn't possibly process or understand the realities of the universe and existence. And you know what? THAT IS OK. It does not in any way diminish the miracle of life. It does not lessen your capacity to love. In fact, being a "non believer" is freeing. It frees up so much time wasted on church and religious rituals. Time is fleeting. Time is the most precious thing. "Believers" are SO SO dangerous to themselves and everyone around them because they are gullible. Gullible people can be convinced to do terrible things. "Believers" and the people who control them cause most, if not all, societal problems.

[@Stewie4321]

I really admire Chris Hedges,read his books, and listen any time I can get to hear him speak......but when he comments on religion I switch off completely. I can understand intuition as a byproduct of the subconscious mind. The subconscious is infinitely more powerful than the conscious because it s ability to asses multiple thoughts and concepts simultaneously and reach a conclusion. That is what intuition is.....consciously you don't know how you reached the conclusion, but it feels right.

[@tedbohne7528]

religion? ancient socio-economic control construct..........

[@hanskung3278]

He doesn't believe in God, so how can he be a priest? Also there were Jews in Auschwitz who maintained their faith, THEY also knew about "cold reality" Christ.

[@mm1979dk]

It amazes me how such a sophisticated person can misunderstand atheists. I mean atheists don't believe in atheists, the same way they don't believe in argument from authority. His notion of love as non-rational concept is a misconception. Granted that Freud was more concerned with sex than love, but that's a red herring because game theory (part of politics and economics disciplines) can answer to questions of trust, hope, belief (as information model), and love is just unconditional hope. QED

[@johnellis5768]

Only by enlightening the public as to the root cause of a problem, can we organize a solution. But, not so says agnostic Hedges, as he fantasizes that there is no beginning of anything, no root cause possible, and that only blind faith in the genus of philosophers will save us from global warming.

[@Hamzazaie]

@malsifood Uh but, according to Islam, thats not the goal of life. Far from actually. What you attribute to religion, overpopulation, occurs in non-Islamic countries. India, China and Latin America for example. Which would give your argument the patina of falsehood. But not surprised actually, I wonder how many Muslim countries you've been to and how many Muslims you've shared a meal with.

[@alialshaikh]

absolutely right human brains can not understand a full religion and work with it and also right when he said people who depends on morals always have the power I think this man hints to justice on earth but he said too that religion can give better teaching and the world can move forward for better U laugh when you read this he fucking destroyed my brains cells

[@saludanite]

Several years ago, it "occurred to me" that Reformed theology was the last stop before atheism. I didn't actually know what the thought meant at the time; it just "occurred to me." I think... now... it means that there is a hopelessness within the doctrine of Luther and Calvin. The actual Love of God has been left out. The hope and the love that I felt when I myself was confronted with Jesus decades ago is absent in it. All that remains when this dread confession asserts itself is an empty intellectualism. It leaves the practitioner somehow hollow, incapable of delivering Life. I hear this when I listen to C.H. I'm so sorry.

[@bammbamm12]

So many philosophical errors - intelligent and courageous though. He's at the bottom of the slippery slope called Protestantism. Having rejected the sacraments (especially the real presence of the Body and Blood), he's resigned himself to the "total depravity" his ancestors scolded him for. Two sacraments - Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and you would not recognize him.

[@lenblack1462]

Non-rational or emotions?

[@feldagriff]

Saying "Religious dogma has nothing to do with what people believe" is ridiculous. While socio-economic conditions, culture, and history are important factors, they are not exclusive. It is easy to see why he thinks this though, since he doesn't really believe in "anything" tagible in the area of religion. Finally, he fails to address why it is necessary and superior to filter human emotionns and experience through the belief in a God and through religion, as opposed to any other method.

[@lawrence9506]

His politics are good and his moral nonsense promotes his politics, metaphysics is always the hope for good times.

[@myroseaccount]

Hedges here shows the arguments of Hitchens, Harris and Dawkins simply miss the point and are at best very simplistic and actually childish and irrelevant.

[@AndrePAtomic]

What is he even saying? Religion is a verb? Religion/Faith the same thing as art? Religiosity is the acceptance of mystery? This is all white noise. I am an atheist and I fail to see how the world is less awe inspiring because of it. Religiosity is the acceptance of mystery? Religious institutions and the like all say there is no mystery, that god did it. All he said could be used to argue “insert spiritual bs here”. Also, If you´re going to have views on something, be able do defend them.

[@chrisray9653]

1. Don't conflate fundamentalism and literalism with "moderate" religion, which is what Chris talking about here. 2. Chris is saying (moderate) religion is the same as poetry, painting, sculpture. Since it is art, it is incapable of being true or false, just beautiful and informative.

[@AmiJurgl]

No Chris, religious fanatics exist because they try to define mystery, it is the atheist that simply accepts it.

[@chrisgwartney5272]

Love, beauty, etc. are NOT "non-rational" forces, they are adaptive and utterly comprehensible. We can understand them perfectly well with science and reason. Love his editorials, but when he tries to justify his personal need for this nonsense it is just painful to watch. Note his demeanor in this talk vs those on real issues... here he's halting, uncertain... he knows his position on religion is ultimately indefensible. He said it himself: art and religion serve similar goals; we don't need religion, we have art, and it doesn't carry the centuries of bloody baggage that religion does. "The questions of science are not the questions of religion."--of COURSE they are. This is eight years old, now... perhaps he's advanced his thought on this issue somewhat since then. Let's hope.

[@theokirkley]

Chris thinks it's narcissistic to believe in God. Only if you think He/She works purely for your own pleasure and satisfaction. I would say it's ignorant to say there is no God. And to favor religious study without God's existence is to render it meaningless

[@NewBeginning2020]

Hey.. He is speaking in the same nonsensical language as in the holy books

[@theprogressiveatheist7024]

@@taoufiqbenallah9029 He's subbed to Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Sargon of Akkad, Rebel Media, The Daily Wire and Sam Harris so yup, he's definitely part of the cult.

[@MatthewMcGeeEI4HZB]

Hey Chris: Sudan is in Africa, not the Middle East.

[@thetrueofgod]

God is not a human creation. That is totally wrong. God is found by those who diligently seek Him.

[@stauffap]

That's called confirmation bias.

[@mikewilson3872]

this guy has absolutely no wisdom whatsoever I would not take his word for anyting

[@fritz1218]

The great missing of the point continues. Christianity in all its faults is like other religions, period; but (semicolonically!) at the dangerous, insanely beneficent core of what Christianity carries with it, there is a verification of an all-embracing love's reality, a verification which is as far removed from any mere wishful believing as it is from mathematical proof. But it's there, and so Christianity will keep popping up pretty much forever, even though only a handful will ever know Y.