World Humanist Congress: Plenary Two - 21st Century Enlightenment: Threats and Promises

[@HumanistsUK]

Another fantastic video from the World Humanist Congress. In this one, our Chief Exec Andrew Copson is joined by atheist and University of Exeter Bible scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Belief and Catholic theologian Heiner Bielefeldt, and English PEN director Jo Glanville to discuss prospects for a 21st century Enlightenment. They are brilliantly chaired by the journalist Samira Ahmed.

[@ImmaterialDigression]

I don't think that lady, sorry I forget her name, really gets what the scientific method is. It isn't about some heirarchical figure dishing out knowledge to the lower orders. It is about striving for knowledge, sharing knowledge, and being critical about everything. Science doesn't cover everything, so I don't get why she brings it up so much.

[@teatimewithshiva]

I really don't understand what is meant by the doing away of hierarchies. Society cannot run without hierarchies. I'm not sure anyone really defined what they mean by 21st century enlightenment, either. Dr. Francesca is a scholar herself: she has a position of power with which she discusses her areas of expertise, and she earned that power by merit, not because diversity was more important than her qualities. Equal opportunity, human rights, 21st century enlightenment--that stuff doesn't necessarily mean equal numbers of every view and every way of living having equal positions of power. And I don't understand what the other ways of living that Dr. Francesca mentions are and why they're in need of being saved from rationality and science. The world and each society within it are in discussion about what the better ways of thinking and being are. There's nothing colonial about that as long as the basic freedom of expression is maintained. It would be better if the panelists could go into more detail about what they mean rather than speak quite vaguely.

[@neocortex002]

Good Luck you Guys :) ♥ :) Much Success