Robert Wright "The Evolution of God."

Journalist Robert Wright visits Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book, "The Evolution of God." This event took place on June 8, 2009,

The God of the Gaps (by Neil deGrasse Tyson)

God at the end of the knowledge.
From: Beyond Belief 2006

"Unweaving The Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder" - Richard Dawkins

"Richard Dawkins of Oxford University discusses his book "Unweaving The Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder", an investigation into the world of mysticism and science."

Sex Crimes and the Vatican

Created in 1962, a now infamous document was issued in secret to bishops. Called Crimen Sollicitationis, it outlined procedures to be followed by bishops when dealing with allegations of child abuse, homosexuality and bestiality by members of the clergy. It swore all parties involved to secrecy on pain of excommunication from the Catholic Church.

This document was reissued in 2001 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and sent to all bishops. Yet rather than ordering more openness and cooperation with the authorities as demanded by both law enforcers and the victims, he reiterated its policies and ensured that the Code of Silence be applied to all cases of child abuse involving a priest. Cardinal Ratzinger also instructed that all cases should now be referred to his office directly and that he would maintain ‘exclusive competence’ over the handling of allegations. This is the Catholic Church’s policy to this day and Cardinal Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI.

The policy laid out in the above document has led to systemic failure by the result that a significant number of priest have, in effect, been allowed to abuse again, and further children have been put at risk.

As the documentary explores, Colm O’Gorman is the man responsible for breaking open decades of abuse by Catholic Priests in Ireland in the BAFTA award-winning BBC special Suing the Pope. He links international ’systemic evidence’ to argue the Vatican has a policy to cover up the sexual abuse of thousands of children across the world.

In Sex Crimes and the Vatican O’Gorman explores four separate cases internationally of widespread clerical abuse, putting the Roman Catholic Church on trial for the reckless endangerment of children. O’Gorman raises the question, ‘Is the Church in default of its obligation as a signatory to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child?’ (Excerpt from news.bbc.co.uk)

Who's Got God's Millions?

Robert Llewellyn attempts to discover which of the world's top four monotheistic religions has the most money. His journey takes him from Canterbury Cathedral to Vatican City and Israel, as he bids to calculate the income and assets of the Anglican Commune, the Catholic Church, Judaism and Islam.




“As an atheist, I’ve always wondered how much money the faiths keep stuffed under the mattress,” says Robert Llewellyn. In this time of financial crisis, when billions of pounds are being coughed up to support struggling banks, Robert feels it is time to discover the financial interests of the world’s great monotheistic faiths – Anglicanism, Catholicism, Judaism and Islam.

Robert’s first stop is Canterbury Cathedral, where he is surprised to learn that financial figures for the Church of England are readily available. Robert then travels to Westminster Cathedral to learn about the Catholic Church’s status in England. Part of the Catholic Church’s income in the UK goes to fund the Vatican, so Rome is Robert’s next destination. It soon becomes apparent that Vatican City is a financial black hole, and no one wants to admit how much money the Pope actually has.

Next Robert travels to Jerusalem to scour the finances of Judaism, only to find the Israeli government cannot even put a figure on the number of synagogues in the country. “There’s one God – that’s the only figure I can think of,” says Ariel Catane of the National Authority of Religious Services.




Finally, Robert heads to the East London Mosque to get a handle on the wealth of Islam. Despite the plethora of statistics available, he finds that no one has ever conducted an audit of the UK’s 1,600 mosques. And his efforts to obtain the global income for Islam founder when none of the embassies of the world’s biggest Muslim countries agree to meet him. Undeterred, Robert eventually comes up with a total figure – but which of the top religions is the richest?

The Great Religion Debate: Dinesh D’Souza v. Michael Shermer

The Great Debate: Dinesh D’Souza v. Michael Shermer 2008.9.1
The Skeptics Society (Michael Shermer) - www.michaelshermer.com

In this debate on what are arguably two of the most important questions in the culture wars today — Is Religion a Force for Good or Evil? and Can you be Good without God? — the conservative Christian author and cultural scholar Dinesh D’Souza and the libertarian skeptic writer and social scientist Michael Shermer, square off to resolve these and related issues, such as the relationship between science and religion and the nature and existence of God. This event was one of the liveliest ever hosted by the Skeptics Society at Caltech, mixing science, religion, politics, and culture

Richard Dawkins - The Enemies of Reason

There are two ways of looking at the world – through faith and superstition or through the rigours of logic, observation and evidence – in other words, through reason. Reason and a respect for evidence are precious commodities, the source of human progress and our safeguard against fundamentalists and those who profit from obscuring the truth.




Yet, today, society appears to be retreating from reason. Apparently harmless but utterly irrational belief systems from astrology to New Age mysticism, clairvoyance to alternative health remedies are booming. Richard Dawkins confronts what he sees as an epidemic of irrational, superstitious thinking... He explains the dangers the pick and mix of knowledge and nonsense poses in the internet age, and passionately re-states the case for reason and science.

The Irrational Health Service
In this episode, Dawkins looks at how health has become a battleground between reason and superstition. A third of us now spend a total of over 1.6 billion a year on superstitious alternative remedies, but 80% of them have never been subjected to properly conducted trials.

Slaves to Superstition
In the episode, Dawkins tackles the epidemic of irrational, superstitious thinking which is blotting the light of logic and evidence. After garnering tips on psychics' entirely earthly trade secrets from the illusionist Derren Brown, Dawkins attends a seance and confronts the medium. Time and again, the interviewees appeal to personal revelation or second-hand anecdote to justify their belief.

Richard Dawkins - The Blind Watchmaker

One of the earliest efforts from Richard Dawkins in his identification and attack on the rise of creationism with the rising star of the US fundamentalist christian demographic. In the important documentary, Dawkins shows ways to easily refute some of the more common creationist arguments.




Dawkins begins with the question, "Did everything in Creation fall together by chance or was there an intelligent designer like God?" He then looks at the spreading disaffection with Darwinism and argues that it should not be written off as a worn out declaration of scientific faith.

Whilst this is an aging documentary, it was an important key step in the growing assertion of science as the ONLY paradigm worthy of consideration to a highly developed species.

History, Science and Religion - Professor Allan Chapman:

Professor Allan Chapman: History, Science and Religion

Professor Allan Chapman examines the duty of historians to bring the true history of scientific achievement to the public.
By emphasizing the "grand amateurs" of the nineteenth century, Chapman debunks long-standing myths and assumptions about western scientific tradition. Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2008

The Crusades: Crecent & the cross

THE CRUSADES: CRESCENT & THE CROSS presents the epic battle between two Middle Age superpowers: the Christian Crusaders and the Muslims. Fought over two centuries, the conflict decided the fate of the Holy Land of the Middle East. Only a tiny strip of land, just a few hundred miles long, it contained the ultimate prize, the city of Jerusalem. The documentary is driven by the key personalities of the First, Second and Third Crusades, the popes, kings, sultans and knights who, in the name of God, ruthlessly fought for land and power. Experience the murder, treachery, and bloodshed of this legendary chapter of history throuth the eyes of key historical figures such as Richard the Lionheart and Saladin, King Louis VII and Nur al-Din. With breath-taking CGI-enhanced visuals, heart-pounding reenactments, and stunning footage from rarely-seen locations THE CRUSADES: CRESCENT & THE CROSS brings the first three Crusades alive for a new generation in conflict.

The Evolution of Religions - Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond, professor of geography at UCLA, received the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1998 for Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. In 1999, he received the National Medal of Science. His most recent book is Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2004).

Professor Diamond argues that religion has encompassed at least four independent components that have arisen or disappeared at different stages of development of human societies over the last 10,000 years.

Christopher Hitchens - "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything"

Author Christopher Hitchens discusses his book "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" as a part of the Authors@Google series. The author of Why Orwell Matters and Letters to a Young Contrarian, Christopher Hitchens is a Vanity Fair contributing editor, a Slate columnist, and a regular contributor to The Atlantic Monthly. He has also written for The Nation, Granta, Harper's, The Washington Post, and is a frequent television and radio guest. Born in England, Hitchens was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he received a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. He now lives in Washington, D.C., and he became a U.S. citizen in 2007. This event took place on August 16, 2007 at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA.
Authors@Google:



YouTube - Authors@Google: Christopher Hitchens

Kent Hovind vs. Dr. Mike Shermer. Creation v. Evolution

Christian apologist Kent Hovind debates Dr. Mike Shermer(chief Editor of Skeptic magazine) and schools Dr. Shermer in the topic of evolution vs creation. "Be ready always to give answer to every man that asks you for the reason of the faith you have"-

A.J. Jacobs' year of living biblically | TED.com

About this talk
Speaking at the most recent EG conference, author, philosopher, prankster and journalist A.J. Jacobs talks about the year he spent living biblically -- following the rules in the Bible as literally as possible.
About A.J. Jacobs
Immersing himself in alternate lifestyles and long, hilarious experiments (usually with himself the guinea pig), writer A.J. Jacobs tests the limits of behavior, customs, culture, knowledge





A.J. Jacobs' year of living biblically | Video on TED.com

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

Randolph-Macon Woman's College
Lynchburg, VA
Oct 23rd, 2006

The God Delusion
Richard Dawkins argues that there is no rational or moral reason to believe in God or any other supernatural higher power. He says that because atheists are discriminated against in the United States they tend not to be vocal about their views, even though collectively they could be an influential political and social force. Professor Dawkins also reads selections from his new book, talks about his love for science, and answers questions from the Randolph-Macon audience.

Richard Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is the author of many books, including The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and Unweaving the Rainbow.







FORA.tv - Richard Dawkins

Is Religion Still the Opium of the Masses?

nstitute of Ideas
London
Mar 6th, 2008

Panelists Rashad Ali, Andrew Scott, Fariborz Pooya, and Dolan Cummings discuss religion and radicalism. Alex Hochuli moderates the event.
We're told that religion today is radical. Islamic extremists, evangelical fundamentalists, Catholic militants - the threat that faith poses to secular society is an aggressive, assertive and vehement one.
But historically, the faithful were slated by humanists for their conservatism - where religion went wrong was its opposition to change, not its advocacy of it. So are the religious now radical - or has secular society simply taken on the conservatism of its God-fearing forebears? - IoI







FORA.tv - Is Religion Still the Opium of the Masses?

Christopher Hitchens - God is Not Great

Politics and Prose
Washington, DC
May 10th, 2007

Christopher Hitchens speaks about his new book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
Hitchens, an always colorful and sometimes outrageous commentator, now takes aim at God. Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins have tried, but that hard-to-hit Fellow keeps popping back up. Worse still are the violent ways of his flock: waging religious warfare, keeping women enslaved, fomenting universal hatreds. Hitchens makes a powerful case for atheism - Politics and Prose







FORA.tv - Christopher Hitchens at Politics and Prose

Sam Harris - The Clash Between Faith and Reason

Aspen Institute
Aspen, CO
Jul 4th, 2007

Believing the Unbelievable: The Clash Between Faith and Reason in the Modern World with Sam Harris speaking at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival.
Some of the most inspired and provocative thinkers, writers, artists, business people, teachers and other leaders drawn from myriad fields and from across the country and around the world all gathered in a single place - to teach, speak, lead, question, and answer at the 2006 Aspen Ideas Festival. Throughout the week, they all interacted with an audience of thoughtful people who stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought, and discussion.







FORA.tv - The Clash Between Faith and Reason

Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

Book Passage
Corte Madera, CA
Sep 30th, 2007

Charles Fisher talks about Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World.
Charles Fisher offers a view of existential suffering from the viewpoints of Darwin and Buddha, synthesizing their two approaches and offering a new approach. He discusses overcoming the incompatibility of these two very different ways of knowing.







FORA.tv - Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

The world's foremost commentators on religion - Karen Armstrong in Conversation with Alan Jones

City Arts & Lectures
San Francisco, CA
Feb 27th, 2008

Karen Armstrong is among the world's foremost commentators on religion. A former nun in the Roman Catholic Society of the Holy Child Jesus, Armstrong now defines herself as a "freelance monotheist," drawing from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The theologian writes about multiple faiths in her bestselling books, including Muhammad, A History of God, Buddha, The Battle for God, and The Great Transformation. In her critical studies and the memoirs Through the Narrow Gate and The Spiral Staircase, Armstrong's perspective is based on compassion instead of reduction.
"It doesn't really matter what you believe as long as it leads you to practical compassion," Armstrong has said.
Her most recent book is The Bible: A Biography, a brief study of the sacred text and the centuries of biblical interpretation - City Arts & Lectures







FORA.tv - Karen Armstrong in Conversation with Alan Jones