Podcasts about why we need religion

Rev. Dr. Jarrod Longbons will be delivering a sermon titled "Homo Adorans: Mankind is Religious by Nature" as part of our sermon series "Why We NEED Religion." Our Scripture for this sermon is Psalm 121. Peachtree Christian Church is a cathedral for the city. It is an Atlanta Institution. It wishes to serve the city, and it wishes to belong to the city. Peachtree Christian Church is a Disciples of Christ denomination church located in midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Learn more at peachtree.org

"Religion Binds" by Rev. Dr. Jarrod Longbons is our sermon for this Sunday as part of our sermon series "Why We NEED Religion." Our scripture for this Sunday is Matthew 4:1-11. Peachtree Christian Church is a cathedral for the city. It is an Atlanta Institution. It wishes to serve the city, and it wishes to belong to the city. Peachtree Christian Church is a Disciples of Christ denomination church located in midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Learn more at peachtree.org

Here's the start to our new sermon series, "Why We NEED Religion!" Rev. Dr. Jarrod Longbons will be delivering a sermon titled "Religion is about Transformation." Our Scripture for this sermon is Matthew 5:21-37. Peachtree Christian Church is a cathedral for the city. It is an Atlanta Institution. It wishes to serve the city, and it wishes to belong to the city. Peachtree Christian Church is a Disciples of Christ denomination church located in midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Learn more at peachtree.org

Its difficult to describe the work our guest Stephen Asma does, falling at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, religion, and study of the emotions. Greg calls it “Affective Neuro Philosophy.” So many different disciplines converge on what he is doing, but really it's all about trying to understand humans.Stephen Asma is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, where he is also Senior Fellow of the Research Group in Mind, Science and Culture, and he is the author of ten books, including “The Evolution of Imagination,” “Against Fairness,” “Why We Need Religion,” and “On Monsters: an Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears.” Stephen is also a blues/jazz musician.Stephen and Greg discuss a range of issues including utilitarian values , American nepotism, the value & contracts of kith & kin, the costs of tribalism, and the decline of standardized religion.Episode Quotes:On living in a culture that's hostile to nepotismIt's one thing for people to preach to us about discounting our loyalty bonds and that we should be acting for the good of strangers. And then to find that they're hypocritically provisioning their own family first. Again, I find this more human. It sort of humanizes them, but then shut up about why we all have to just help the strangers and not our own first. I think we live in a culture that's very hostile to nepotism doesn't know what to do with nepotism and then turns around, and each one of us enacts it, practices it, benefits from it.Neutral vs Natural bondsI do think we're living more and more the utilitarian dream where people are in less tight bonds and more neutral attenuated bonds. And as a result of that, I believe you're finding more depression, you're finding more social problems.We ignore nepotism, but it exists.Nepotism is alive and well and thriving. It's just that we don't want to look at it. We don't want to acknowledge it. We don't want to have a theory about it.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Gandhi AutobiographyunSILOed: The Psychology of the Arts feat. Ellen WinnerGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at Columbia College ChicagoStephen Asma WebsiteStephen Asma on LinkedInStephen Asma on YoutubeStephen Asma on InstagramStephen Asma on FacebookStephen Asma on TEDxColumbiaCollegeChicagoHis Work:Articles on AeonStephen Asma on Google ScholarThe Emotional Mind: The Affective Roots of Culture and CognitionWhy We Need ReligionThe Evolution of ImaginationAgainst Fairness Why I Am a Buddhist: No-Nonsense Buddhism with Red Meat and WhiskeyOn Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst FearsThe Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment in the Land of the Tattered BuddhaStuffed Animals and Pickled Heads: The Culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums

We want to be in proper relationship with the world. In other words, we want to have as many true beliefs as possible, or, at least, fewer false beliefs. We hope the ideas we hold will suit us well for adapting to the demands of our social, moral, and physical environments.  This is also true when it comes to religious beliefs, but how do we discern which ones are justified true beliefs and which ones are wrongheaded? The numberless instances of religious disagreements should cause us to seriously doubt our religious truth claims and to exercise caution when interpreting our personal religious experiences. When it comes to settling religious disagreements, how do we determine who qualifies as an epistemic peer? How seriously ought we to take the religious views of other people? In this episode, Jeffrey Howard talks with Helen De Cruz, the Danforth Chair in the Humanities at Saint Louis University. Her research is concerned with the questions of why and how humans can deal with abstract, difficult to grapple concepts such as God or mathematical objects, and how we can engage in creative endeavors such as art and philosophy. She is also working on the question of how philosophy can help in discussions in the public sphere, including her recent monograph Religious Disagreement. She has received grants from the British Academy, the American Philosophical Association, and most recently, the John Templeton Foundation for a study on the origins of human-specific morality. Her work has been published in journals such as Philosophical Studies, the American Philosophical Quarterly, and the Australasian Journal of Philosophy.  Religious experts are supposed to have privileged knowledge about religion. Yet, philosophers, including philosophers of religion, tend to hold a variety of views that mirror those of the general public. If that’s the case, are they really that expert? Furthermore, what do we do about religious disagreement among laypeople? What are we to make of the knowledge gap between novices and experts? And how can we benefit by taking the conveyed religious experiences and beliefs of other people seriously? Show Notes: Religious Disagreement by Helen De Cruz (2019) Why We Need Religion by Stephen Asma (2018) The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James (1902) The Joy of Religion: Exploring the Nature of Pleasure in Spiritual Life by Ariel Glucklich (2020) ”What Should We Do When We Disagree?” by Jennifer Lackey  (2008) “Experts and Peer Disagreement” by Jennifer Lackey (2018) Epistemic Authority: A Theory of Trust, Authority, and Autonomy in Belief by Linda Zagzebski (2012) “Numerical Cognition and Mathematical Realism” by Helen De Cruz (2016) Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James by Ann Taves (2000)

Professor Stephen Asma was a fairly confident atheist, until he saw the emotional and social value of religion while living in Cambodia. Now, his new book Why We Need Religion argues that religious belief contributes to the very survival of the human species. He joins Rachael to talk about his shift to agnosticism, the appeal of Buddhism, and why atheism is a social club motivated by outrage and anger.

Professor Stephen Asma was a fairly confident atheist, until he saw the emotional and social value of religion while living in Cambodia. Now, his new book Why We Need Religion argues that religious belief contributes to the very survival of the human species. He joins Rachael to talk about his shift to agnosticism, the appeal of Buddhism, and why atheism is a social club motivated by outrage and anger.

Open Stacks returns from summer break with fresh ears and shelf-browsings: Peter Coviello takes a walk through the stacks, Stephen T Asma speaks on Why We Need Religion, and the Co-op's eminent booksellers talk about Middlemarch.

Stephen Asma, professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, talks about his two latest books, The Evolution of Imagination and Why We Need Religion .

In this dialogue Dr. Michael Shermer talks with philosopher Stephen T. Asma, a Professor of Philosophy and Founding Fellow of the Research Group in Mind, Science, and Culture at Columbia College, Chicago. His new book is Why We Need Religion, in which he argues that, like art, religion has direct access to our emotional lives in ways that science does not. Yes, science can give us emotional feelings of wonder and the sublime—we can feel the sacred depths of nature—but there are many forms of human suffering and vulnerability that are beyond the reach of help from science. Different emotional stresses require different kinds of rescue. Unlike secular authors who praise religion’s ethical and civilizing function, Asma argues that its core value lies in its emotionally therapeutic power. Asma and Shermer also discuss the relationship of science and religion, why people believe in God, atheism vs. agnosticism, the “new atheists”, humanism and the need for social and spiritual community, and other hot topics.