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Bertrand Russell on God and religion (1959) (youtube.com)

submitted ago by Pilebsa

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[–]joesbadday 10 points11 points ago

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What is so great about this video is the interviewers ability to track his responses and offer relevant followup questions. The interview feels like an intellectual conversation and not just an attempt to touch on hot-topics or catch the interviewee off-guard.

[–]dougb 7 points8 points ago

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Doing things with class was all that really mattered back then. Somehow the informal dictum of 'it's not what you do, but how you do it' got lost in the fog of cheap-ass movie and television production sometime around the beginning of the 1980's.

[–]Pilebsa[S] 4 points5 points ago

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This all changed in 1987. I keep harping about it, but the whole face of news became different once the FCC was no longer able to enforce equal time rules. After that, there was no longer a heavy line between editorial and advertising and the special interests of the station.

[–]boxfactory 0 points1 point ago

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This clip was recorded by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, correct?

[–]Denny_Craine 1 point2 points ago

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yeah it was weird I kept expecting the interviewer to get angry or voice her opinion or some shit but she didn't, she was so.....cordial. Growing up in the last 20 years really makes it hard to realize that interviewers weren't always Bill O'reilly

[–]whuuh 2 points3 points ago

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Thanks for this. Enjoyable to see an atheist who is sensible, laid back and straightforward when interviewed. Granted, it was a different time.

[–]bustinjustin 3 points4 points ago

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Bertrand Russell is friggin' awesome. Especially for his time; I like his notion about the floating teapot in space. Really good stuff.

[–]ukepriest 0 points1 point ago

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Anyone else read Logicomix?

[–]permaculture 0 points1 point ago

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There can't be a practical reason for believing what isn't true.

How about social cohesion?

[–]GabrielMSharp 4 points5 points ago

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How can you believe something if you see it isn't true?

Plus I've never found a lack of social cohesion from my being an atheist.

[–]permaculture 2 points3 points ago

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How can you tell the difference between someone who truly believes, and someone who just says they believe?

Lots of people go to church for the social occasion. It's a big group they can belong to and get to know people.

I'm an atheist too :)

[–]GabrielMSharp 1 point2 points ago

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You can definitely lie about believing, but you can't truly believe is all I was saying.

To be honest thinking back on what I said, it's amazingly obvious and largely uninteresting.

[–]permaculture 0 points1 point ago

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I've been thinking about this one and it occurred to me that:

Belief isn't about reason. It's about faith.

[–]GabrielMSharp 2 points3 points ago

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Yeah, but all I was really saying was, if it was practical for me to believe in God I still couldn't. But I think Mr. Russell was thinking more about the evolution of humanity.

I'm just too far down the road. Plus I think some people that insist in their faith have doubts that they just hide.

[–]PyosRoMaXXVI 0 points1 point ago

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And yet some philosophers, notably German existentialist Karl Jaspers made the claim that faith should be backed by reasoning, and logic, and not simply be blind.

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