TED Talks
https://www.ted.com/talks/julia_sweeney_on_letting_go_of_god#t-976259
This talk was about God. A complex topic that most find difficult to talk about. The speaker talked about how when she reached the age of seven, she was told that God was then recording all of her actions and essentially everything before the age of seven she could have done anything wrong and it wouldn't have mattered in terms of the after life. Her parents also lied to her about her birthday so instead of it being in September it was actually in October which meant she had one month of doing bad things she didn't know about. After many years, two Mormon boys came to her house and started talking to her about their religion and belief, hoping to spread it. She listened but a question stuck out to her which was "Do you believe God loves you with all his heart?". She seemed to be stumped because she did not like giving God normal body parts nor placing a gender on God. She thought some more and realized if she talked about Catholic beliefs to someone who had no idea, she would sound equally as crazy as these boys. The speaker gets their point across through humor and relate able notes such as a birthday and religion "forced" upon us as children.
I chose this talk because I'm very interested to see what other people have to say about religion. I would say that I am a religious person and seeing someone who believed in a religion for almost all their lives simply stop is surprising but also understandable. This is a very confusing topic for many including me because its generally very personal. When others come to you with a different religion, its common to think they are crazy or ridiculous when that is almost never the case! I feel like the purpose was to help make people more open minded and everyone has a right to believe what they think is right.
This talk was about God. A complex topic that most find difficult to talk about. The speaker talked about how when she reached the age of seven, she was told that God was then recording all of her actions and essentially everything before the age of seven she could have done anything wrong and it wouldn't have mattered in terms of the after life. Her parents also lied to her about her birthday so instead of it being in September it was actually in October which meant she had one month of doing bad things she didn't know about. After many years, two Mormon boys came to her house and started talking to her about their religion and belief, hoping to spread it. She listened but a question stuck out to her which was "Do you believe God loves you with all his heart?". She seemed to be stumped because she did not like giving God normal body parts nor placing a gender on God. She thought some more and realized if she talked about Catholic beliefs to someone who had no idea, she would sound equally as crazy as these boys. The speaker gets their point across through humor and relate able notes such as a birthday and religion "forced" upon us as children.
I chose this talk because I'm very interested to see what other people have to say about religion. I would say that I am a religious person and seeing someone who believed in a religion for almost all their lives simply stop is surprising but also understandable. This is a very confusing topic for many including me because its generally very personal. When others come to you with a different religion, its common to think they are crazy or ridiculous when that is almost never the case! I feel like the purpose was to help make people more open minded and everyone has a right to believe what they think is right.
DUDE INTERESTING!!! God and religion is such a heavily debated topic with factual evidence for both sides of the debate, making it complex. The Ted Talk seemed really interesting, but confusing. To my understanding the girl was religious but her mom told her that her birthday was a different day???? Then she started questioning religion, and eventually giving up on the subject all together. I think that's interesting especially for me since I am not religious (kinda makes me think that I could be later in my life) hmmmm..... Good job though!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove this talk and your interpretations of it. I think many of us have a personal struggle with religion and the existential battles it presents us with. In recent weeks I have discovered that one of the most important things is attempting to understand a multitude of perspectives and inter-religious debates. At our core, we are all humans attempting to feel a little less small in this giant world and many of us like to justify our smallness through devout religious beliefs. Your personal battles with religion along with Sweeney's only emphasize the importance of remaining open minded to new ideas especially in the world of religion.
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