Why We Need Religion In A Globalized World | Miroslav Volf | TEDxWilmingtonSalon

[@johndeacon3753]

Love his statement - 'Meaning without pleasure is crushing and pleasure without meaning is vapid...'

[@robinmoore4994]

Reminds me of something I read in an Os Guinness book about a calling in life. I think he referenced Bartleby the Scrivener.

[@sk8kar89]

that meaning doesnt have to come from a dogmatised concept of religion that has mostly been violent and cruel throughout its history. any religion has done more harm than good for humanity.

[@KyleLincolnChannel]

Just my observation, but his claim is a lot more modest than what many comments might suggest. He's just arguing for the value of religions which can contribute to the globalized world - and he's doing so from a distinctly Christian theological worldview. He's not arguing against other belief systems, including non-theism.

[@socksumi]

Some of us care that what we believe is actually true.

[@MZmakesgames]

Afghanistan is the perfect example of religion in today's world.

[@hanshananigan1233]

He is proposing that meaning necessarily comes from God. Implying that atheists cannot leave meaningful lives. He does not provide much argument or evidence for either claim.

[@hanshananigan1233]

@@alephmale3171 I think what you are saying is that if a believer accepts the truth of his/her beliefs, meaning is objective. And if a person is a non-believer than their experience in meaning has to accept that it is subjective. I suppose I agree.

[@jonjonboi3701]

@@hanshananigan1233 he actually does give evidence for it

[@Stealthkiller17]

Very good points in your presentation. Also good structure. Thank you!

[@nathanketsdever3150]

I tend to think it helps to listen and reflect. The importance of what he says at about 4 minutes in could not be overstated and in fact is the answer to any objections on the thread.

[@socksumi]

I don't need to believe in a supernatural cosmic superman to give "meaning" to my existence. I don't want my life's meaning to be externally imposed, we carve our own meaning in life. The question isn't about "the meaning OF life"... it's about "the meaning IN life" and only we get to decide that.

[@jacobsnodgrass13]

This sounds like a great thought but is impractical and ultimately hopeless endeavor. The ability to carve out meaning has been overcome with reality and has lead to hopelessness

[@jonjonboi3701]

@@jacobsnodgrass13 carving out meaning in life doesn’t lead to hopelessness

[@jacobsnodgrass13]

@@jonjonboi3701 if the meaning is rooted in reality. But the modern search for meaning has no objective source or foundation.

[@jonjonboi3701]

@@jacobsnodgrass13 I disagree

[@jacobsnodgrass13]

take it up with Charles Taylor

[@danielbarbosa3989]

I´m not religious and I don´t believe in a supreme being. However, I do agree that meaning is essential not only to pleasure, but, most importantly, to pain and suffering. I believe every human has the power to co-create the world and to choose the vision they are going to follow according to the purpose they feel in their heart. In other words, I´d argue the proper religion or philosophy for the future of our globalized world should be the directive to seek self-awareness.

[@oceanswell82]

As an atheist I don't share his optimism for religion. However, I've read his book on religion in the public square and I believe he has a keen insight into what makes religion toxic. I hope religions listen to him and become safer.

[@robertlight5227]

Religious faith is distilled egoism.

[@habibohighclass5260]

I always ask my self What am i doing in this world ? and each time i see this world from a big picture i realize it must be there a creature, and it must be there a purpose for this world and especially for us as human, and i fond all my answear in ISLAM, this life is just a test for us. all what you must do is keep wondering and searching and reading till you find the real truth, and believe me if you do that sincerely HE will guide you PEACE :)

[@ThePassiveObserver]

Thank you for your NON contribution, zombie man.

[@poposlawisrael1180]

Great! Then the question is: What is the TRUTH, and how can we find it??

[@leilagomulka5690]

♥️♥️♥️

[@softsound9154]

...

[@arsheijunio5352]

9:27

[@carloslagua9691]

You never mention how to know the God you believe in, to compile our existence just to pay attention to little things that happen to us is a minimum area of a divine manifestation. I expected some other points that help people to know, follow, and develop a relationship with that God.

[@devirama1]

Just love and don't overthink it. That's really all you need to know to develop a relationship with Nature, Divinity, and other humans. See the universe as one living Force, acknowledge your oneness with it, and love your experience of it. After 87 years of trying different religions, this is all I can come up with that works for me.

[@Stealthkiller17]

@@devirama1 Very well put.

[@noehlogical]

Daisy Class

[@missswann4234]

U said how to succesfully being a good human being and done the tasks? So i ask you : 1. Who given you the standart of good and bad 2. Who given you the task? The standarr of success for you is very superficial only this world and failed to the next world the next dimension

[@ConTodayTempo]

why do religious people always sound like they're just speaking without point

[@freistiu]

maybe because they have learned that the simple answers are not always the right answers.

[@socksumi]

Because they are trying to dodge the question of skepticism toward their religion.

[@paxnorth7304]

We're speaking in secret codes that get downloaded to our phones every Thursday. To non religious people it just sounds like gibberish.

[@verdensborgeraglobalcitize1610]

@@socksumi Do you have some prejudice?

[@Pugpono]

Wow ... Nihilego’s design has meaning now. 😂

[@dannyoosthoek1388]

If a person does not have religion the person does not die because of this? NO! So do we need religion? NO! The truth is not a monopoly solemnly for the religious. This talk is a waste of time and life. Best we just focus on people that are actually focused on this world instead of their life after this life. Ignore religious people unless they enforce religion upon you. Then just eliminate them. This guy talks so much bullshit it's beyond repair. So many assumptions he's imposing upon me, i'm disgusted by people like that.

[@davidrubes290]

I'm disgusted therefore eliminate "them". Nice.

[@Ant42Lee]

It's possible for religion to focus on this life. There's a very important idea in Judaism, for example, that "the Messiah will come when he is no longer needed" - i.e. the world will be God's kingdom when we MAKE it God's kingdom by working for the justice and the good of all people. You shouldn't just assume that all religions work the same way and are only concerned with what happens after you die

[@socksumi]

@@Ant42Lee But atheists don't believe in any god(s). You cannot cast assumptions on them when they dispute the very premise that god exists. Well being in the here and now is important to atheists for reasons that have nothing to do with god, the supernatural or an afterlife.

[@pohjoisenvanhus]

@@socksumi Are you also speaking for all Christian atheists?

[@pohjoisenvanhus]

@@Ant42Lee Yep. Only those who haven't bothered to think things through and haven't done their homework make that kind of assumptions speaking as if what they say applies to all religion. People making that kind of generalizations have no business talking about reason or science.

[@javerhanielcuyos7022]

Im tired watching

[@SimonMeekers]

Wow, 15 minutes wasted by listening to these religious apologetics. Atheism is not nihilistic at all. Every single action becomes more meaningful when you remove the illusion of life after death. You will seek that what is the most pleasurable for you and your surroundings *with you own moral compass, logic and reasoning.* Therefore a humanist based atheism combines both meaning & *allocentric pleasure seeking* and discards all tribalistic tendencies that all religions have. *Edited the bold parts*

[@davidrubes290]

You have it all twisted... when a Christian dies he gets to go to either heaven or hell. When an atheist dies he dissipates into nothingness. Get your facts straight.

[@SimonMeekers]

If a christian dies he goes to the same nothingness as the Atheist, Jew, Muslim and any other religious affirmation. Nature does not differentiate based on ones dogmatic belief system. It's not like if I truly belief in something, nature will make it come true in some sort of way. Otherwise it would be foolish to risk to belief in heaven & hell when you can perfectly belief in immortality, reincarnation or and other less risky pseudoscientific claim... And if you were to say that theists would be more moral because they risk eternal damnation, than I'd ask you to take a look at how many religious violence there is in honor of the great almighty non-existent god. If you base your morals on yourself, your own empathy and reasoning, as most atheists (and all humanists) do, than you would arguably be more moral than the morality described in any religious doctrine. You would care for other humans not because the holy book tells you to but because you truly care for them. You would let facts, reason and your moral compass determine what is right & wrong and not books that were written more than hundreds of years ago.

[@Graham6762]

I think you are confusing happiness and pleasure. A hedonistic lifestyle is completely empty and cannot be meaningful.

[@SimonMeekers]

'You will seek that what is the most pleasurable for you and your surroundings. Therefore a humanist based atheism combines both meaning & happiness and discards all tribalistic tendencies that all religions have.' I agree, I should have stated that atheism combines meaning and pleasure seeking because true happiness can only be found from within and is not dependent on outside events. And I should have clarified this, of course I think that this has restrictions. If there is a net pleasure of one person raping another person than it still is not the right thing to do. I agree that a hedonistic lifestyle is meaningless, as it is more of an mathematical approach to morality, it is merely thinking about what bring the most net pleasure in a calculable kind of way and abandons the use of a moral compass in thinking about what truly is the right thing to do. Humanism on the other hand is thinking about the feelings of others with empathy and logic & reason combined with what brings the most pleasure in the most allocentric kind of way (all humans). I think it's best described as a combination between free-thinking and consequentialism in the broadest sense.

[@dchoi94]

You'll need to qualify this statement for us pseudoscientific, religiously irrational people... I'm trying to understand your learned ways. If Atheism is not nihilistic, as you say, then what is the teleological nature of human life. You affirm there is one if "you remove the illusion of life after death." Okay, granted that we remove this "illusion" (which Christians or any other major religions would not say is the sole thing we find meaning in [the afterlife] rather it is God), what then provides meaning? I suppose you somewhat answered this vapidly by a "humanist based atheism" but that still doesn't answer the question and is inevitably circular because meaning by its very definition is given or imposed on someone/something. Your account is essentially hedonistic, relativistic, nihilistic, and baseless.

[@revistacrestina2972]

Veritas odium parit.

[@chriscross4004]

So true! Look at what we did to Jesus.

[@SamTheSciencerAtheist]

First talk of TEDx that I ever saw that is total nonsense. Quite a shame to bring this cheap apologetic that tries to reinterpret our problems in a way that keeps religion out of responsibility. Shame on you TEDx... Shame on you!

[@verdensborgeraglobalcitize1610]

You are full of prejudice. A scientific frame of mind requires openness

[@chriscross4004]

Seems you are just full of hatred and bitterness, nothing else.

[@leilagomulka5690]

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