Becoming Wise

Mayfair Yang is Director of the East Asia Center at the University of California in Santa Barbara. She has produced two films about China and is the author of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation.

Robert Wright charts an intellectual path beyond the faith versus reason debate. He takes a relentlessly logical look at the history of religion, exposing its contradictions. Yet Wright also traces something “revelatory” moving through human history. In this public conversation — recorded before a live audience — we explore the story he tells, the import he sees in it for our culture, and where it has personally taken him.

Robert Wright charts an intellectual path beyond the faith versus reason debate. He takes a relentlessly logical look at the history of religion, exposing its contradictions. Yet Wright also traces something “revelatory” moving through human history. In this public conversation — recorded before a live audience — we explore the story he tells, the import he sees in it for our culture, and where it has personally taken him. Our unedited conversation with journalist and scholar Robert Wright. This interview is included in our program “Robert Wright on The Evolution of God” and was recorded on February 2, 2010 in front of a live audience at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. See more at onbeing.org/program/evolution-god/193

Part two of this series delves into Einstein’s Jewish identity, his passionate engagement around issues of war and race, and modern extensions of his ethical and scientific perspectives.

Albert Einstein’s quip that “God does not play dice with the universe,” was about quantum physics, not a statement of faith. But he did ponder the relationship between science and religion and his sense of “the order deeply hidden behind everything.” With guests Freeman Dyson and Paul Davies we explore Einstein’s wisdom on mystery, eternity, and the mind of God. See more at onbeing.org/program/einsteins-god/90

Albert Einstein’s quip that “God does not play dice with the universe,” was about quantum physics, not a statement of faith. But he did ponder the relationship between science and religion and his sense of “the order deeply hidden behind everything.” With guests Freeman Dyson and Paul Davies we explore Einstein’s wisdom on mystery, eternity, and the mind of God. See more at onbeing.org/program/einsteins-god/90

Albert Einstein’s quip that “God does not play dice with the universe,” was about quantum physics, not a statement of faith. But he did ponder the relationship between science and religion and his sense of “the order deeply hidden behind everything.” With guests Freeman Dyson and Paul Davies we explore Einstein’s wisdom on mystery, eternity, and the mind of God. See more at onbeing.org/program/einsteins-god/90

A poet and self-described literary activist, E. Ethelbert Miller attended Howard University in 1968 — the age in which Black Power was finding its voice. He has remained there ever since, observing and making sense of the trajectory of black history and culture. He pushes at the parameters within which mainstream America routinely sees what he calls “blackness.”

A poet and self-described literary activist, E. Ethelbert Miller attended Howard University in 1968 — the age in which Black Power was finding its voice. He has remained there ever since, observing and making sense of the trajectory of black history and culture. He pushes at the parameters within which mainstream America routinely sees what he calls “blackness.” Krista’s unedited conversation with E. Ethelbert Miller. He is a poet and literary activist. Krista spoke with him on January 22, 2010, from the studios of American Public Media in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was in the studios of National Public Radio in Washington, DC. This interview is included in our program “Black & Universal — Meeting E. Ethelbert Miller.” See more at onbeing.org/program/black-universal/73

British activist Ed Husain was seduced, at the age of 16, by revolutionary Islamist ideals that flourished at the heart of educated British culture. Yet he later shrank back from radicalism after coming close to a murder and watching people he loved become suicide bombers. He dug deeper into Islamic spirituality, and now offers a fresh and daring perspective on the way forward.