Feb 17 2013: While this was a fascinating talk, it had relatively no useful information. For that matter, it had basically nothing to say about what actually is. It seemed like his main point, his agenda, was to stress his idea that we are not a miracle. "We are not a miracle" he laughingly says, multiple times. Not very convincing.
Oct 20 2012: Nice! Change always flows from the inside out. The outside of the bowl can be as clean as possible, but unless the inside is clean it is unfit for use. This applies first to individuals, then to families, and then to communities and so on and so forth.
Oct 19 2012: Slightly off topic comment: why have there only been 45,664 views of this? TED talks should be world-wide popular. This is the best blog for circulating ideas and conversations.
May 13 2012: Sutherland, I think, had some quite insightful ideas, all of which he seems to have tested and proven through experience. "The circumstances of our lives actually matter less to our happiness than the sense of control we fell over our lives." This is a very tricky claim, and the whole philosophy put forward by Sutherland is equally tricky, if not entirely dangerous. Much of what he had to say about perceived value was a softened manner of revealing marketing (presentation, context, advertisement) as a lie. If I, a consumer, believe the spoon to be made of real silver, than what difference does it make if it is or is not real silver? This kind of thinking, I have no hesitation in saying, leads to a slippery slope. I hope we can all see how this hoodwinking, however harmless it first appears, is of the exact same nature as the those found in all the dystopia literature in the past century. Truth is always more important than our perceptions. Honesty, integrity, reliability, and stability are tied to truth, not perceived value.
Feb 18 2012: Naturalism is a limited way to view the world, and thus experience it. Magic is not real, and the world has indeed moved beyond the eras of mythology, but it is vital that we do not forget that we are souls. We have a spiritual nature, and if we refuse to believe this, reducing all experience and knowledge to natural phenomenon, then life is quite literally meaningless. The fault of this worldview is self evident. It gives no reason for life, and thus contradicts itself. Love, the highest of the three divine virtues, is no mere natural/physical phenomenon, but a clue to the very real existence of our souls, our need for relationship, and the existence of a Loving God.
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