But Michael Shermer is so VERY cool, he just e-mailed me to say he would provide me with a DVD of the lecture. YOU ROCK DR. SHERMER!
You can read Dr. Shermer’s articles in Scientific American. His latest focus, as it seems to me, is to address the awe and mystery that is plainly available from the sciences. My not so humble opinion is that Dr. Shermer is almost single handedly promoting such public interest in REAL scientific study and academia, that we will someday see a “tipping point” where it is IN STYLE to be educated and studied in the FACTS that current scientific research has to offer. And yes, there is indeed a great deal of awe and mystery to be uncovered.
Here is the info on the lecture from the Skeptics Society:
Breaking The Spell
Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
Sunday, February 26th, 2006, 2:00 pm
Dr. Daniel Dennett
One of the greatest thinkers of our age tackles one of the most important questions of our time: why people believe in God and how religion shapes our lives and our future. In this lecture, based on his new book of the same title, Dr. Dennett shows that for the vast majority of people there is nothing more important than religion. It is an integral part of their marriage, child rearing, and community. Dennett takes a hard look at this phenomenon and asks: Where does our devotion to God come from and what purpose does it serve? Is religion a blind evolutionary compulsion or a rational choice? In a spirited investigation that ranges widely through history, philosophy, and psychology, Dennett explores how organized religion evolved from folk beliefs and why it is such a potent force today. Deftly and lucidly, he contends that the “belief in belief� has fogged any attempt to rationally consider the existence of God and the relationship between divinity and human need.
Dr. Dennett is a professor and director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, and the author of the highly acclaimed Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, Consciousness Explained, and Freedom Evolves.