Summary: Those who wish to pursue a life of pure reason are often attracted to the movement known as secular humanism. This program explores the movement by presenting several humanist inquiries, including: How and why do religions develop? Can morality exist without religion? Is there a humanist narrative that can take the place of myth? How can public policy become truly rational? The film features...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Will modern science close the book on God, or can reason and faith coexist? This program analyzes how the process of scientific inquiry has challenged belief in a divine being. With visits to locations ranging from the CERN particle physics lab, to the Lourdes shrine, to Grace Fellowship Church, Kentucky, Robert Winston discusses the views of Pascal, Galileo, Newton, and Darwin; the Higgs...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program summarizes and distills what we have learned about the great religions in this series. Smith's lifetime of experience and study helps him to go beyond the differences between each tradition. He shows how the cultivation of virtues valued by all religions-intelligence, compassion, creativity, truth, beauty, and goodness-can lead to transcendence. In the many faces of God he has...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: No religions have proved more combative than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, despite the fact that they share the same deity-or perhaps because of it. In this program, renowned biblical scholar and religious historian Othmar Keel sheds light on topics such as the volatile historical and cultural contexts in which the Old Testament originated; the protracted struggle of monotheism for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: In this program, Robert Winston focuses on monotheism as he continues to examine the building blocks of faith and humankind's quest to plumb the nature of God. Visits to Mt. Sinai, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, St. Peter's Basilica, Mecca, and the Abalfazl and Imam Mosques, Isfahan, shed light on the beliefs that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: It has been called a gateway to eternal salvation and an incitement to holy war. It has unified peoples yet divided nations. Religion: would society be better off without it? That is the question in this Oxford Union-style debate as panelists make their case. Speakers for the motion underscore that rampant interfaith and intrafaith violence vastly outweighs any social benefits of religion and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: In this program, philosopher and theologian Conor Cunningham argues that only extremist viewpoints-Creationism and ultra-Darwinism-make evolution and religion mutually exclusive. Experts from across the gamut of opinions frame the debate and trace its origins, including Father Gregory Tatum of the Ecole Biblique; University of Oxford historian Pietro Corsi; Darwin scholar Nick Spencer, author...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: A self-proclaimed "freelance monotheist," Karen Armstrong is on a mission to bring compassion, the heart of religion, as she sees it, back into modern life. In this edition of the Journal, Bill Moyers sits down with Armstrong for a nuanced discussion of her Charter for Compassion initiative, a global call for all people-religious and non-religious alike-to apply the Golden Rule in their...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Barbara Walters hosts this ABC News program about the afterlife, collecting an array of opinions, hopes, and scenarios concerning what, if anything, happens following death. Walters interviews religious leaders from various cultures and faiths, including Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, D.C.; Pastor Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Rabbi...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Beginning at the Gargas Caves, France-humankind's first house of worship?-this program seeks to understand why our ancestors began to believe in one or more divinities and how, through the ages, different cultures have expressed that belief. Great mysteries such as death and nature are considered as factors in the evolution of religious faith as Robert Winston, archaeologist Jean Clottes, The...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: It is a philosophy that seeks to replace religion with rites of passage based on compassion and rationality. Despite its overarching goals, Humanism divides into several groups-from hedonism to secularism. This program delineates viewpoints from five articulate humanist proponents who, through thoughtful explanations, evoke the multifaceted landscape of Humanist thought. Participants include...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Does science have a monopoly on reason? Not at all, says philosopher and novelist Colin McGinn-reason is the foundation of morality as well. Bill Moyers talks with the author of The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds in a Material World and Ethics, Evil, and Fiction about his adoption of atheism, his views on the practicalities of religious tolerance, and his belief that rational scrutiny and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: A shared heritage, a spiritual belief system, a set of rules for living-these are all aspects of Judaism, but the order in which they are emphasized varies greatly within the faith. This program features opinions from four articulate and sometimes controversial adherents to the Jewish religion who share their views on differences and similarities within Judaism. Highlighting the impact of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: If religion is viewed as “a finger pointing at the moon,” then preoccupation with that finger—rites, rituals, rules—can actually be an obstacle to spiritual experience. This program considers the idea that religion is a means to sanctity, not an end in itself; the importance, in a time of rising global threat levels, of dissolving strictly sectarian conceptions of God; the profound unanimity of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: In contemplating a supreme being, some theologians have turned away from a personified depiction to adopt, instead, the broader transcendent term "the ground of Being"-a concept popularized by theologian Paul Tillich. Speaking primarily from the Christian point of view, this program explores the personal and therefore subjective nature of conceptualizing God, the broadening of religious...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo-called "the Woodward and Bernstein of Italian journalism"-are coauthors of Collusion: International Espionage and the War on Terror. In this program, Bill Moyers and Bonini discuss "Nigergate" as they trace the trail of the forged intelligence documents purporting that Iraq sought to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger. Also on the program, Jerry...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Can spirituality, compassion, and emotional honesty survive in the face of oppression and religious fundamentalism? Canadian author Margaret Atwood, author of such classics as The Handmaid's Tale, The Edible Woman, and The Blind Assassin, speaks to Bill Moyers about agnosticism, the hunger for meaning, and the distinction between belief and knowledge.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: It's a scenario from science fiction: police, predicting the future, arrest citizens before they commit crimes. But the scenario has real-world parallels in psychology. This film examines the PCL-R, or Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, a classification tool used to profile criminals and predict whether or not they will re-offend. In addition to forensic applications, the film shows how the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Although Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door, his action sparked a political upheaval as well as a religious one. This program examines the rise of the Protestant movement in Europe and its link to revolution, civil war, and modern incarnations of radical and conservative politics. Studying the theology Luther crafted at Wartburg Castle and his confrontations with papal and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Many people refrain from identifying themselves with any particular religion, yet they express a keen interest in nourishing their own sense of the sacred. What, then, does it mean to be spiritual but not religious? And how might individuals benefit by joining their spirituality to the religion of their choice? This program uses the psychosocial journey from dependence, to independence, to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Why are many of today's spiritual seekers looking beyond the world's mainstream religions for fulfillment? And is technology eclipsing the concept of God? This program goes to the heart of those questions through interviews with Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy, as well as leaders of New Age organizations such as the Naropa Institute, the Krishnamurti Foundation, and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Questions about the language and construction of the Jewish Bible, especially its first five books, are among the most fascinating in paleography. Was Moses the sole originator of the Pentateuch? Did other writers have a hand in it? How does archaeology complement textual research? In this program, theologian Robert Beckford travels through the Middle East in search of definitive answers. A...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Beliefs spelled out in the Apostle's Creed link Christians around the world-but in practice, the faith has fractured. This program presents views from five insightful and widely differing believers who reveal their thoughts on conflict and harmony within Christianity. The participants are Terry Waite, author, humanitarian, and former hostage in Beirut; Ann Widdecombe, conservative British...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: In the last 30 years, women have been enrolling in Christian and Jewish seminaries in surprising numbers. The Jewish Theological Seminary, for example, which did not ordain women until 1986, now has a student body that is one-third female. In this CBS News special, a wide variety of women in ministry discuss their experiences and triumphs, as well as their frustrations with old prejudices that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006