Will check them out. WIth TED- check out the bottom one (Gapminder) and the happiness/choice ones. I'm partial to the med/health ones myself, and the tech as another kingdom of life thing... (by one of the Long Now lectures guys- another great thing to check out).
Fair enough on truth. However, I love studying words- and how synonyms are different in history of use and actual use is often very telling about culture. I find truth tends to be linked to the idea of purpose or meaning in addition to fact. There is often direction implied in it.
Have you ever read "Ishmael"? There is a great point about narratives that Rosemary Radford Ruether (a whipsmart Catholic theologian) also makes about cultural myths and the worldviews they spawn. It is that when we tell a story (even a scientific one of creation) the way we choose to tell it makes it a myth. In Ishmael, he points out that in the big bang>evolution story the man telling it stops at humans and the developement of societies. "If you were a jellyfish (the caharacter says), your myth of creation would have ended at the sea".
Whenever we tell a history, we are sellecting. Our history of the world/reality tends to be centered on us (which does cut down the small and insignifigant thing a bit). You'd think that the entire point of evolution was to produce us. Very few scientists focus on the fact that we are hideously statistically miniscule in the Universe. Even the ones that note it talk about how special an exemption we are. Our idea that we're so incredibly special and unique (in many religions as well as science) does create a certain attitude.
Fair enough on truth. However, I love studying words- and how synonyms are different in history of use and actual use is often very telling about culture. I find truth tends to be linked to the idea of purpose or meaning in addition to fact. There is often direction implied in it.
Have you ever read "Ishmael"? There is a great point about narratives that Rosemary Radford Ruether (a whipsmart Catholic theologian) also makes about cultural myths and the worldviews they spawn. It is that when we tell a story (even a scientific one of creation) the way we choose to tell it makes it a myth. In Ishmael, he points out that in the big bang>evolution story the man telling it stops at humans and the developement of societies. "If you were a jellyfish (the caharacter says), your myth of creation would have ended at the sea".
Whenever we tell a history, we are sellecting. Our history of the world/reality tends to be centered on us (which does cut down the small and insignifigant thing a bit). You'd think that the entire point of evolution was to produce us. Very few scientists focus on the fact that we are hideously statistically miniscule in the Universe. Even the ones that note it talk about how special an exemption we are. Our idea that we're so incredibly special and unique (in many religions as well as science) does create a certain attitude.
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