Amazing Stuff

Did anyone else see this video? I've watched it a few times trying to figure out if there are some super-duper special effects going on, but if they're there, I don't see them. (I tried to imbed the video rather than just liking to it, but it took forever to load. I finally gave up and just linked to it instead)

While I'm waiting, I'll tell you about my visit last night to Town Hall to hear Chris Hedges give a talk on his newest book, I Don't Believe in Atheists. He is a brilliant guy, a great writer and an interesting speaker, but I had to disagree with a lot of what he had to say. I wouldn't want to get in an argument with him though. He's one of those brilliant guys who speaks a half-dozen languages fluently, has lived all over the world, and seems to have the whole encyclopedia of history, politics and philosophy on the tip of his tongue. I like to think I'm a pretty bright guy, but he makes me feel like an uneducated and ignorant fool.

His book is a counter argument to books by the likes of Christopher Hitchens (God is Not Great, and How Religion Poisons Everything), Sam Harris (The End of Faith), and Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion). Generally, I'm on the side of the atheists and anti-theists, but Chris Hedges compares their tactics to those of the Religious Right, and says that these guys are creating their own version of a religion. I've read the stuff by Harris and Dawkins, and I've heard Hitchens speak, and in my mind, they say nothing of the sort. And for that matter, I never heard Hedges say anything overtly religious in his talk. I did buy his book (but I didn't feel like standing in line to get it autographed), so I'll be able to see if what he writes is different than what he says. During the question period, a woman asked him exactly what he believed in, and he evaded the question, talking about how his own father had shaped his beliefs. It sounded like a good case for secular humanism to me. Nonetheless, it was an entertaining and informative lecture, and a good time was had by all.