TED prize winner Karen Armstrong launched her TED wish at the National Press Club in DC today. Simultaneously, hundreds of groups worldwide, both secular and faithful, celebrated the Charter for Compassion, Armstrong’s call for the world’s adults to re-insert the Golden Rule into our daily existence.
I covered one such event today for InMenlo.com, the hyperlocal blog that spouse Linda and good friend Scott Loftesness cooked up some months ago. Interestingly the Charter includes language that I, who has spent a lifetime struggling with faith, found immediately sympathetic:
We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.
Oh yeah. We’re definitely not wild about mindless fundamentalists of any stripe, or mindless secular ideologues, either. Secular extremists are just as vile as religious extremists, in my very humble opinion. Faith, however you want to describe it, keeps this world from going completely to the hell that religion, in its many guises, works to produce. Ms. Armstrong is onto something, and TED has risen in my estimation for supporting her work…
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I’m right with you! I have the faith, but I can’t do religion. It’s all false and man-made. I agree with Ms. Armstrong and you that often we have “increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.” …and have gone to war and committed murder and who knows what else in that same name. That’s why I can’t do religion.
Faith is another story altogether. I have my faith and it holds me strong. It’s just kind of lonely going solo with it, but that’s preferable.
What is TED and how do I find it? I’ll take a look.
Beth-
TED is the annual Technology, Entertainment and Design conference – basically a series of fascinating presentations by very smart people.
http://www.ted.com/
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
There’s probably equal danger between faith & religion. There would be an awful lot of frustrated chumps if every man in Silicon Valley believed the 1 unmarried woman in Silicon Valley was his soulmate. Ascribing meanings to things & believing in supreme plans, beings, & signs can be a road to depression even without a Koran or a Bible. Sometimes you need a serious pull back on faith to keep from going crazy.