Opium des Volkes?

Over the summer I ran across an inspiring talk by Karen Armstrong about the state of western religion (monotheism anyway) and how is can be a force for compassion and harmony. I decided then that it would be WWW's first Christmas post. Raised with no personal religious beliefs, as an adult I've had a fascination with religion...both our need for what it gives us and the rituals that we execute in pursuit of those satisfactions. Armstrong's work is always thought-provoking and I think you'll find this talk of particular interest.



Then, for an alternate (perhaps contrarian) perspective, here is a talk by Christopher Hitchens, discussing the ideas behind his book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

Darwinian Inspiration and Perspective

I set out to pen a WWW post this week that was focused on food, hoping to create a sequel to my post from last August. After all, it is the holiday season and we Americans never met a holiday we didn't celebrate with a overflowing plate. So I started by seeing what was out there featuring Michael Pollan, whose books-on-cd are on the playlist for my annual cross-country holiday drive. And while I did find a great talk that Pollan gave about food, it was really more about a Darwinian view of the world.

And that reminded me of a similar, two-person talk I had seen featuring artist/musician Brian Eno, discussing his Darwinian perspective on creating art, along with videogame designer, Will Wright, the mind behind SimCity, The Sims and, most recently, Spore. So enjoy all three perspectives over a big plate of food at your favorite internet cafe.