Product Description
Discussing selections from Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel C. Dennett.
Should we be religious, or is religion just a bunch of superstitious nonsense that it's past time for us to outgrow? Does faith lead to ceding to authority and potential violence? Can a reasonable person be religious Read more about the topic.
Buy/read what we did:
-Ch. 1-2 of Harris's The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
-The last three chapters of Hitchens's God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
-Ch. 4, and some of ch. 2, from Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion
-Ch. 8 (and skimming 3 and 7 to get context) of Dan Dennett’s Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
-Chapter 14 of Anthony Kenny's 2008 book From Empedocles to Wittgenstein: Historical Essays in Philosophy
Listen to the episode preview. Become a PEL Citizen and get your free copy here. You can also purchase this episode through the iTunes store. Read more about our vintage episodes.
Running Time: 1 hr., 50 min. Recorded: September 4, 2011. Participants: Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan
As a bonus, your purchase includes a high-bitrate mp3 of the song that concludes the episode, “Goddammit,” by Mark Lint & the Simulacra (2000, completed 2011).
Briana –
Are there any plans to do an updated episode of this since So much has changed culturally in the US since it was recorded?
Mark Linsenmayer –
What would you recommend we read for a follow-up episode? We did one a few years later on faith that may be relevant here, but maybe that’s not what you’re looking for.