Religion Panel - Do We Need a Humanist Reformation?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/03/06/Is_Religion_Still_the_Opium_of_the_Masses

Institute of Ideas Research and Editorial Director Dolan Cummings argues that mainstream secularists must first re-assess their own beliefs if they wish to challenge radical religion.

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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?

Dolan Cummings is research and editorial director at the IoI. He edits the IoI's reviews website, Culture Wars and is a co-convener of the yearly Battle of Ideas festival, next taking place in London in October 2007.

Dolan's interests lie in the relationship between ideas and politics, the role of the intellectual, ideology, and religion in public life. He is especially interested in the question of intellectual authority and how it is contested. Dolan firmly believes that politics should start from the needs and passions of the public, and that this puts a premium on open debate and free speech. Most recently he has edited a collection of essays, Debating Humanism by contributors to the Battle of Ideas 2005.

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[sufinaga]

telling them their parents are sinners is grooming. jesus is the anti-christ. telling children that jesus died for their sins is child abuse. original sin: christianity is babylon and its falling down. stop violent images in schools. ie crucifying a jew is an abomination.

[neotoy]

I prefer the term holisim.. humans are just part of a much larger ecosystem, a lot of problems are caused by our myopic obsession with our own species, when we should really be looking at the bigger picture, and our very small place in it.

[HatterMadigan]

T-t-t-t-today Junior...

[ahmedeox]

All abrahamic religions are inherently sick, the main reason being that they all accept the idea of sacrificing your own child because God said so(as Abraham tried to do). A loving God would say: Yo, Abe! Sell all your shit and buy Isaac that PS III he always wanted. But nooo.... try to kill him to show me how much you love me. If someone kills their children because they heard God's voice, we put them in the loony bin. But if this happened 3000 years ago, we interpret it as "spirituality".Bleah

[jazzx251]

@FIGHTFANNERD3

correction:

99.999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­999999999999999999999999999999­99999999% not real

[FIGHTFANNERD3]

gods 100% not real

[beancube2008]

Religious are in language. Without language, faith in worshiping gods dies. Gods must be agreed.

[studio7manga]

damn... *there is

[studio7manga]

Republicans & conservatives certainly don't believe in modern liberal enlightenment society. Liberals, well theirs a reason why they are called liberals, I'll claim that banner any day of the week.

[maurieer]

After spending my youth involved in religion

and not being able to grasp the concept of an

unseen god, i`m now an agnostic.

Why is this unseen god real?

All the gods man created throughout the ages

were the direct result of his imagination.

I feel that the present god is the same.

The RC church hand picked the books to make up the bible. This was and is the tool the church uses to control it`s flock.

The bible has a heaven for believers and a

hell for non-believers and much more.