Episodes

4 items

Can God be known only by faith? What is faith? What does faith feel like? Can faith be actionable, practical? Describing faith is one thing; having faith, quite another.

video

How Does Faith Work?

Episode 02

Season 17

26:48

Watch

Cover image for Religious Faith: Rational or Rationalization?

There is strain between faith and reason, yet many people proclaim their faith. Why? What generates faith? God? Or human psychology? Should we want to have faith?

video

Religious Faith: Rational or Rationalization?

Episode 06

Season 16

26:48

Watch

Cover image for What Causes Religious Belief?

Why are religions so pervasive, across diverse human cultures? If God exists, would God have made it so? But there are entirely natural reasons to expect the widespread...

video

What Causes Religious Belief?

Episode 07

Season 13

26:47

Watch

This is personal. Why should I want to believe in God? Is belief a circular path of self-deception? Or the shortest route to bedrock reality?

video

Why Believe in God?

Episode 03

Season 11

26:46

Watch

Topic Series

9 items

Cover image for Why Believe in God? (Part I)

This is personal. ‘Why believe in God’ can mean two things: ‘What are the possible benefits of believing in God?’ and ‘what are the possible...

playlist

Why Believe in God? (Part I)

Topic Series

14 videos

2:01:11

Watch

Faith, we’re told, is required for belief in God (at least for the God of Judaism, Christianity, Islam). Faith, by definition, is not rational, but is faith irrational?...

playlist

Religious Faith: Rational or Rationalization?

Topic Series

10 videos

1:36:41

Watch

Cover image for What Causes Religious Belief? (Part 1)

Religious belief is everywhere. Why so pervasive, ubiquitous across diverse human cultures? What motivates the universal belief in things we cannot see? Some say the reason...

playlist

What Causes Religious Belief? (Part 1)

Topic Series

7 videos

1:04:45

Watch

Cover image for What Causes Religious Belief? (Part 2)

Religious belief is everywhere. Why so pervasive, ubiquitous across diverse human cultures? What motivates the universal belief in things we cannot see? Some say the reason...

playlist

What Causes Religious Belief? (Part 2)

Topic Series

6 videos

49:00

Watch

Cover image for Powers of Religious Belief?

The strength of religious belief is prodigious. People dedicate their lives, not eat certain foods (or not eat at all), refrain from sex, even sacrifice their lives—all for...

playlist

Powers of Religious Belief?

Topic Series

9 videos

1:14:43

Watch

What is the relationship between experiencing art and experiencing God? Can the arts generate or trigger religious experience? If so, can it be validated?

playlist

Arts and Religious Experience

Topic Series

9 videos

50:40

Watch

Is there a relationship between diverse arts and belief in God? Can the arts express or encourage religious belief? If so, can it be validated?

playlist

Arts and Religious Belief

Topic Series

9 videos

59:17

Watch

Why are the arts so deeply embedded in religious settings and services? How do the arts work in religious spaces and activities? What are differences among the arts, say...

playlist

Arts and Religious Practice (Liturgy)

Topic Series

7 videos

1:03:37

Watch

Art is deeply involved in the practice of religion, embedded in the rituals and liturgy of almost every religion. But how could the ubiquity of the arts in religion affect...

playlist

Arts and Religious Reality

Topic Series

6 videos

47:26

Watch

Roundtables

Cover image for Can Religion Withstand Technology?

A social scientist, an expert on science and Islam, and a card-carrying skeptic discuss how the clash between technology and religion reshapes our search for meaning. A...

video