Karen Armstrong: 2008 TED Prize wish: Charter for Compassion

http://www.ted.com As she accepts her 2008 TED Prize, author and scholar Karen Armstrong talks about how the Abrahamic religions -- Islam, Judaism, Christianity -- have been diverted from the moral purpose they share to foster compassion. But Armstrong has seen a yearning to change this fact. People want to be religious, she says; we should act to help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help her build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.

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[TheBriak]

Stay brave, internet warrior, for you fight the good fight. May you never run out of Mountain Dew and Doritos, and may your neckbeard grow to lengths never before seen. You are an inspiration to us all.

[A Aramian]

this is nonesense mumbo jumbo

[newdimensionfilms]

You can say that "the core of every major world religion is 'do unto others what you would have them do unto you'" until you're blue in the face, but it simply ignores what the scriptures actually say and the histories of these religions include. I can say that London England is really in California, but it JUST ISN'T TRUE.

Ignoring what the traditions of religions actually are and what their scriptures actually say gets us NOWHERE.

[newdimensionfilms]

This person is so full of shit her eyes are brown.

[misioyoggi]

I always thought that TRUTH was more important than compassion although it should be practiced.

[misioyoggi]

"Any ideology that does not promote a global understanding and global appreciation of each other is failing the test of time" WOW! Welcome to the NWO.

[Topher TheTenth]

She has a slick, intellectually dishonest technique to refute any sensible analysis showing religions' evils: take any evil dogma & avow it to be not the "pure religion" but the "hijacked religion". Cite compassion & the Golden Rule in all religions (whose nigh-unanimous concession of the Golden Rule proves its non-dependence on religion) as "true religion". Result: "true" religion = good. Or say "true Nazism" honored Jews' rights, so Hitler version was "hijacked". Ergo "true" Nazism isn't evil.

[Pythagoras211]

To be honest with you, she has her reasons for minimizing the importance of verses in the Koran, Talmud and the Bible that seem to condone violence. To understand those reasons you need to understand her belief system thoroughly (you haven't shown that you do). As a scholar she has duty to tell the truth, but she is also a humanist, as a humanist she has a duty to promote tolerance and more important religious values (ie. compassion).

[Sandy A]

The point is that integrity and honesty are important values, and anyone purporting to be a scholar has a duty to tell the truth; it is not their job to presume that their audience is too immature or naive to cope with reality, or to patronise them by protecting them from 'hurtful' truths. They should do them the justice of allowing them to make their own informed judgements.

[Sandy A]

So, are you saying it's okay to deceive people if it makes them feel better? The rotten verses in the so-called holy books don't make me at all miserable, BTW, they just fill me with disgust. And I think it's much healthier and more honest to acknowledge the whole of something (good and bad) rather than pretend it's all good. I consider lying (by omission or commission) immoral, as, presumably, religious people do too.