What is Religion? - Thinking Out Loud Podcast Transcript - 09/05/2007

Steve Donaldson, Moderator
Participants: George Garret, Billie Lagerwerff, John Tytus, Mike Grosso, and Steve Stokes

Moderator:
Question, what is religion? Hi, I'm Steve Donaldson, and this is Thinking Out Loud; an ongoing series of philosophical dialogs with everyday people. The question before us today is, "What is religion?" Well let's begin. We'll start as we usually do with introductions and first reactions.

George:
Hi, my name is George. And I don't have a whole lot of preconceived opinions, but I am sure many will come out in the course of the discussion. Interesting topic.

Billie:
I'm Billie and it couldn't be more topical, could it?

Moderator:
O.K. 'K.

John:
I'm John. I think it is a very important, extremely important question just now, at this juncture.

Mike:
Ah, I'm Mike. And yeah, I think this is important. One reason this is important, I'll give two reasons just to start the ball rolling a little. Number one, every since 19 in the 1970's there is clear evidence that religion is growing, not declining even among young people not old. Religion has survived Chinese communism, Russian communism, religion is the rage in both of those traditionally atheist countries. So that's, that's one reason. The second reason is, we have, some of us may have noticed that religion has it's dangerous side. And the recent programs, the program on CNN conducted by Aman.., Christiane Amanpour's about, entitled Religion's Warriors. So I think we need to try to get some kind of comprehensive thinking and understanding of what religion is. It's an important subject as all of us here agree.

What is Mysticism? - Thinking Out Loud Podcast Transcript - 10/03/2007

Participants: Mike Grosso, John Tytus , Billie Lagerwerff, UJ Fields and Steve Stokes

Moderator:
Question; What is mysticism? Hi, I´m Steve Donaldson and this is Thinking Out Loud. An ongoing series of philosophical dialogues with everyday people. The question before us today is, What is mysticism? Let´s begin.

We´ll start as we usually do with introductions and first reactions.

Mike:
Mysticism. Very interesting subject. I think is a timely one too, Steve. Because it is in the news that one of the greatest mystics and poets of all time, Rumi, who was born in Afghanistan 800 years ago is being celebrated, not only in Turkey, but in various universities around the country. And they are celebrating him because he represents ah… vision of unity of religion and tolerance and so its a wonderful… and as you say he´s a… as a Sufi he is part of the Islamic religion so this is important that they are stressing this particular figure that is such a great mystic that represents the ideal of unity of religions and tolerance. I´ll just start off with that comment and say nothing further.

Moderator:
O.K. Mike, ah great, thank... Go ahead.

John:
I´m John, and I think mysticism is quite important these days because secular non-mystical approaches don´t seem to be working as well as we expected them to. Mysticism seems like the natural next step.