What Is Religion?

The latest Thinking Out Loud podcast has been released on iTunes. The session was recorded last Wednesday, Sept 5, and the topic was "What is religion?" Thank you Billie, George, John, Mike, and our cyber participant, Steve Stokes from Atlanta, GA, for a great discussion. Although Skypecast broadcasting is still down, I am pleased that we were able to include Steve using a regular Skype Internet phone connection. The sound quality was excellent, as was the content of our discussion. Here are some highlights:

Is religion the antithesis of philosophy? What do they have in common? How are they different? What are the origins of religion? What is the "religious experience"? How do interpretation, doctrine, and dogma enter into religion? Does man's search for meaning inevitably lead to religion? How does religion provide meaning? What is the role of the church and its hierarchy of priests? What are the dangers of religion? Where is the line between religious instruction and involuntary indoctrination? How is spirituality different from religion? What is the role of religion in community formation and maintenance? What can science and philosophy learn from religion? Can religions evolve? Is it still possible for altogether new world religions to come into being? Can a synthesis emerge out of the collision of science, philosophy, and conflicting world religions? What could art, literature, and poetry add to such a synthesis?

Steve Stokes has generously volunteered to create a transcript from our recording. I will post it on this blog once it is ready. Thanks, Steve, for your courageous undertaking. A written transcript will be another powerful medium with which we can examine and disseminate what pearls of collective wisdom we managed to scatter throughout our discussion.

Our podcasts have been reaching an audience. We have been consistently within the top 20 on iTunes in the Philosophy category. Here are the numbers on the 4 most popular of our episodes downloaded in August:

640 downloads: The Nature of Addiction
172 downloads: What is Love?
132 downloads: America's Democracy
127 downloads: Free Will

To subscribe to the podcast with your podcast software (such as iTunes or iPodder) copy and past the following link into your software:

www.citizenphilosopher.com/rss/tol_podcasts.xml

If you have iTunes, you can find us listed in the Apple Music Store directory under Podcasts/Society & Culture/Philosophy, or just do a search in iTunes on Thinking Out Loud People. The direct iTunes link is:

phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=214321935

If you don't have iTunes or other podcast software and just want to download the mp3 file directly, use this link:

Listen to the broadcast (mp3)

You are invited to add your thoughts by clicking on the "comments" link at the lower right hand corner of this post.

The next Thinking Out Loud will be Wednesday, October 3, at 7:00 pm. Mike suggested we continue to expand along the theme of religion, having laid down a good introduction to the general topic in the last session. The tentative topic for the next session is "What is mysticism?". Other religion related topics we could consider at some point are:

1. Religion and personal identity
2. Religion, morality and taboos
3. Religion and politics

The final decision will be up to those who show up for the session. If we can come to a consensus beforehand, we can save time at the beginning of the session and we will have the benefit of some forethought on the topic. So if you prefer a topic other than "What is mysticism?" or wish to refine the question, now is the time to make your case. Everyone is encouraged to lobby for their favorite topic. If there is not a clear consensus, we will vote at the beginning of the next session. If there is a consensus, so much the better.

Cheers,

Steve