>> ^RadHazG:

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." -Steven Weinberg


No... The affront to human dignity is humanity. We are a species of sick fucks and the fact that we don't admit it makes us sicker. We blame "concepts" as our faults--as if religion is the insult to human dignity...hard to say that when it is a naturally occurring concept, i.e., ingrained in the human code (One of the five Universals. Something we must "unlearn" in order to break away from.) Always something else's fault... never ours. If it was ours we'd have to work hard to fix it. Reminds me of why America is in decline right now...

Here, Steven Weinberg is an idiot. I appreciate Alan Watts much better...

@kulpims
I wouldn't let anyone adopt a child...let alone a religious person.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'parker, stone, alan watts, mashup' to 'parker, stone, alan watts, mashup, life, struggle, all a ride' - edited by EndAll

*1 the people that committed the act were part of an extremist muslim group, basically a cult. they would not have done this act if they weren't in this group and reasoned in that way. thus being motivated by it, yes.

*2 yes, "he is currently pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience at UCLA, using functional magnetic resonance imaging to conduct research"

*3 an illogical belief like believing something supernatural which any intelligent person would easily see why such a thing should be dismissed (such as fairies at the end of my garden). nothing like eating a vegetarian pizza, i could just tell someone was peeved at a reasonable person because i suspect they have vested interests in the beliefs being dismissed.

check out this short talk by sam harris, the best thing by him i think :
http://www.videosift.com/video/Sam-Harris-lectures-on-the-dangers-of-both-religious-fundamentalism-and-religious-moderation

also, i'd add that john searle and alan watts are bad recommendations for views on such subjects. john searle is like a small child in comparison to derek parfit's knowledge of the brain and self. also i'd recommend susan greenfield instead of alan watts (he just talks half truths loosely based on buddhism).

1. For The New Intellectual, by Ayn Rand
2. The Virtue of Selfishness, by Ayn Rand
3. The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins
4. The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins
5. The Nature of Consciousness, by Alan Watts

wow - I don't think I've ever heard someone so superficially right and yet so fundamentally wrong. Harris doesn't understand the first thing about brains, mind, spirituality, or any other human experience except on the most superficial level.

Beyond his equating of faith and religion (which are as different as ethics and law), he says things like doctors are more likely to be religious because they have to "play this language game" with people facing their own imminent mortality. Language game? The ultimate human experience - and he equates it with Scrabble.

I wonder if he really believes that the 9/11 attack was religiously motivated (as he claims here). Has he forfeited all of his mighty powers of cognition at the outset and drunk the NeoCon koolaid? It was never about religion - it's about money. As all wars have been. Religion is a lever that those in power often use to motivate others into doing their bidding. Is he really naïve enough to think that skillful leaders would not find other levers to sway willing followers in the absence of religion? It demonstrates a complete lack of human understanding.

There are more poorly conceived notions in this interview than siftbot will even give me space to mention in one comment. But I'll be happy to enumerate them over many comments if anyone is taken in by this snake-oil salesman. If you want some good insight into human behavior, go listen to this guy, or this one, or maybe best this one.

(and btw - regardless of anyone's belief system, I don't see anything here that gives the viewer any insight into how minds or brains work - thus removed from brain channel.)

Looks like you need two million frequent flyer miles.

"If it was ready next week, I'd be there," Alan Watts, who has traded in two million Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer miles for a ride on SpaceShipTwo, told SPACE.com. "I'm really looking forward to it."

As far as people who buy $180 million dollar yachts:

"If I had been a Heathen,
I'd have praised the purple vine,
My slaves would dig the vineyards,
And I would drink the wine;
But Higgins is a Heathen,
And his slaves grow lean and grey,
That he may drink some tepid milk
Exactly twice a day."

"The point becomes clear only as one realizes, with compassion and sorrow, that many of our most powerful and wealthy men are miserable dupes and captives in a treadmill, who—with the rarest exceptions—have not the ghost of a notion how to spend and enjoy money."

-Alan Watts

>> ^MINK
so give me a handout to develop some philosophy and social structure and culture. tell me how that works in a free market.

Heres the prescription I would give to (begin to) cure the philosophical deficiency of 21st century culture:
"The Blind Watchmaker" my Richard Dawkins
"The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins
"For The New Intellectual" by Ayn Rand
"The Virtue of Selfishness" by Ayn Rand
"Free To Choose" by Milton Friedman
"Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt
"The Art of Thinking" by Vincent Ruggiero
"The Nature of Consciousness" by Alan Watts

Two years ago I was just as against the free market as you or anyone else was. It was only possible for me to accept these ideas once I had changed my philosophical, societal, and cultural perspective. Philosophy is not bought or sold on ebay, it is taught in schools, in interactions with friends, and from parents.

These conversations are my attempt to share philosophy, maybe I'm not very successful...but I'm just some random guy I'm no Alan Watts.

Logic is not a preconception, it is a tool, a specific method of reasoning. It is applicable in many situations, but not all. You wouldn't use logic to evaluate art, would you?

More to the point, logic relies on assumptions. I was simply asking you to drop all assumptions. Let yourself think freely. I just promoted this video as an adjunct to this conversation, as it points out the kind of preconceptions I would hope people would drop while thinking about this. Like I said, I'm not trying to convince you of anything, just trying to get you to think beyond the bounds to which you are accustomed. I would write a very similar response to a biblical literalist. You have approached the topic with a particular belief structure, and all I ask is that you try to dismantle that before assessing Tom Honey's talk. I know, it's close to impossible to do completely, but awareness of the elements of that framework is the place to begin.

sorry cyriak, gotta make room for alan watts
*discard

Ahhh cool, roughy, some Alan Watts archives, too!

I just sifted another video in the series, but it seems to have committed suicide for mysterious reasons. Would any star-holding members like to revive it? http://www.videosift.com/video/Alan-Watts-I

Tags changed from "trey parker, matt stone" to "parker, stone, alan watts, mashup" by gold star member choggie.

hey fedquip.....would be interesting to engage in a conversation with you, dealing with the finer points of Alan Watts, that did not begin with a wikipedia primmer on yer end.......dinna think so.....

by the way, I take liberties with you imo, I think I have earned it and so have you.....mind if I change the tags??????

It's nice to hear an Alan Watts lecture that's so down to earth and accessible. And incredibly Trey Parker and Mat Stone's animations work really well with it. Makes me want to read his books again.