The University of Edinburgh: The University of Edinburgh

The second in a series of Gifford Lectures by Professor Michael

Gazzaniga. Recorded 13 October, 2009 at the Playfair Library Hall, the

University of Edinburgh.

Our brains are

organised in such a fashion that very little of the processing, which is to say

neural work, goes on in our conscious minds.

Any simple act, such as pointing

to your nose, involves forming the desire to touch your nose, planning a motor

response, gathering information about the location of your nose, calculating in

a flash if you want to bring attention to your nose and so on.

All that

information is gathered and processed and leads to the desired action, and yet

little or none of it is done consciously.

Even more daunting is the fact that

how the brain accomplishes such a simple task is utterly beyond scientific

understanding at this point in time.

While textbooks are full of knowledge

about the specific neurons involved - the areas in the brain that are active

during such specific actions and even areas known to be active with intention to

act - no one knows how it actually works.

The first in a series of Gifford Lectures by Professor Michael Gazzaniga. Recorded 12 October, 2009 at the Playfair Library Hall, the University of Edinburgh.

What do we need to know about the human brain in order to discuss the weighty

questions of free will, mental causation, morals, ethics, and the law?

To understand anything from a biologic perspective we must place this effort in

an evolutionary context, consider the nature of the organ that allows us to be

asking these questions, and to the extent that we are able, determine how it

works.

The fundamental point that emerges out of this analysis is that much

complexity is built into the brain and not just passed along as accumulated

cultural behavior and knowledge from one generation to the next.

It is this

built-in complexity that enables us to discover the keys to how, ultimately, the

mind constrains the brain and not the other way around.

We will appreciate that

our automatic brains are structured complex systems with particular skill sets

and that ultimately our “I” story - the story of our own personal, phenomenal

consciousness - is embodied in the brain’s network systems and not in outside

forces compelling the brain into action."

The second in a series of Gifford Lectures by Prof Diana Eck. Recorded 28 April 2009 at The University of Edinburgh.

Multireligious societies have long been a historical reality in some parts of

the world.

Today, however, there are many recently-multireligious societies,

especially in the west, where people of different faiths live in close proximity

and struggle with religious difference as citizens of a common society.

What are

the challenges to the common "we" in the context of religious difference?

What

does religious pluralism mean for nations with large majorities and insecure

minorities?

What do "nations" mean in a world in which the movement of people

and ideas is constant, with migrations that are not one-way, but back-and-forth,

as people participate in the life and aspirations of more than one society?

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The third in a series of Gifford Lectures by Prof Diana Eck. Recorded on 30 April 2009 at The University of Edinburgh.

Cities are the focal point of religious pluralism, for in

cities the cultures and traditions of the world are concentrated. They are, as

Lewis Mumford put it, "energy converted into culture."

The term "cosmopolis" has

long signaled the world-city, and indeed some of the great cities of the world

have had a cosmopolitan texture for many centuries. Today, however, the number

of new cosmopolitan cities has grown exponentially.

While London, New York, and

Mumbai may still be the great examples of world-cities, Leeds, Detroit, Boston,

and Toronto also concentrate the energies of complex cultures.

Even smaller

cities, like Fremont, California, have significant Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, and

Buddhist populations.

What critical challenges have cities faced as they become

more religiously and culturally diverse? How have these challenges been faced,

negotiated?

What new forms of city life are emerging?

What new forms of

religious life, including rapidly growing interfaith initiatives, are emerging

in the urban environment?

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The fourth in a series of Gifford Lectures by Prof Diana Eck. Recorded 4 May 2009 at The University of Edinburgh.

Religious diversity poses questions that are not only global, national, and

civic, but also theological.

In 1910, the World Conference on Mission convened

in Edinburgh and addressed the world's religions from the standpoint of

Christian missions.

Today, as people encounter neighbors of other faiths, face

to face, and as communications enable people of every faith to know those of

other faiths, what new theological questions do we and others pose about our own

faith?

How is the "truth" of each tradition challenged in the face of other

faiths and truth claims?

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are increasingly

referred to as the "Abrahamic" faiths, indicating a common prophetic ancestor in

the figure of Abraham. Abrahamic dialogue is on the rise. What assessment do we

have of these dialogues?

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The fifth in a series of Gifford Lectures by Prof Diana Eck. Recorded 5 May 2009 at The University of Edinburgh.

Looking more broadly, the religious traditions of the Indic world have

distinctive views on religions, on the diversity of religions and the

engagements we would call pluralism.

Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim

communities have lived in complex relationship with one another, with

distinctiveness as well as common discourse.

Discussions of pluralism and its

relation to secularism are lively in these traditions today.

How do some of

today's thinkers and spiritual leaders articulate the dilemmas of religious

"truth" and the religious other?

How do they relate their Asian traditions to

the globalization of religion?

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The final in a series of Gifford Lectures by Prof Diana Eck. Recorded 7 May 2009 at The University of Edinburgh.

Religious pluralism is not only a fact of global and local encounter of

religious communities, but it is increasingly part of the lives of people in

many parts of the world who identify with more than one religious tradition.

The

phenomenon of multiple religious belonging is part of families in which parents

affiliate with different religious communities; it is part of the inner

landscape of students and seekers who find significant meaning and direction for

their own lives not only in their tradition of birth, but in other traditions

and spiritualities.

How is this fluid border-crossing transforming the

"religions," so often thought of as separate?

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