[ted id=http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/518]

TED talks are now embeddable in wordpress. Woohoo!

“BBC – ‘Newton: The Dark Heretic’ Aired 2003 ‘Heretic’ in the sense that he disbelieved in the concept of the Trinity. A very interesting documentary revealing a hidden and truly enlightened side to one of the greatest minds that western civilisation has known. His deep study of science led him to a firm conclusion that there is a Creator and based on his study of early Christian history, he was convinced that the concept of The Trinity was a falsification of the pure message of monotheism that Jesus preached. Newton vehemently rejected the corruption of the Christian establishment and the innovation that is the divinity of Jesus, his belief was the revealed God is one God. During his life he was forced to keep this belief secret for fear of being labelled a heretic and after his death this information was carefully suppressed. The documentary also highlights the point that in the absence of study of the final divine revelation no matter how great the mind the knowledge of the unseen can not be deciphered as is illustrated by the fact that Newton spirals into a hopeless search for the truth by vigoursly engaging in the art of alchemy! File can be downloaded from http://www.islamictorrents.net/details.php?id=6870

“Description: This 60-minute program is a compelling adaptation of Lee Strobel’s personal journey from atheism to faith in God… a journey in search of the truth about intelligent design in the universe. During his academic years, Lee became convinced that God was outmoded, a belief that colored his ensuing career as an award-winning journalist at the Chicago Tribune . Science made the idea of a Creator irrelevant… or so Strobel thought. My road to atheism was paved by science… but, ironically, so was my later journey to God. Lee Strobel Has science discovered God? At the very least, it’s giving faith an immense boost as new findings emerge about the incredible complexity of life and our universe. In The Case for a Creator DVD, Strobel reexamines the theories that once led him away from God. Highlighted by spectacular computer animation, The Case for a Creator DVD is a remarkable film in which you’ll encounter the mind-stretching discoveries from cosmology, cellular biology, DNA research, astronomy, physics, and human consciousness. The Case for a Creator DVD is produced by Illustra Media, the same studio team that released The Privileged Planet, Unlocking the Mystery of Life , Where Does the Evidence Lead and The Prophecies of the Passion . More than 40 minutes of extra bonus features (not included; please upload if you have this!).”

Personally, I’m agnostic. I think atheism is an absurd concept by its own definition: the Cartesian scientific method does not allow conclusions to be made from unknowns. I find the sometimes childish and offensive posturings of athiests (particularly on the net, stumbleupon.com is full of them for some reason [social engineering propaganda for "Generation i", I wonder?]) boring and, frankly, a little scary. In my opinion, we need God. Without the unknown, without the temperment of its uncertainty, we are nothing but soft machines to be tinkered with by psychopathic Corporations and Ivy League Eugenicists. The existance of God is not an argument or a debate any more than a discussion about the existance of the Binomial Theorum. God is a sum of infinite parts, a timeless destination, a collective wonderment forever, most likely, beyond our understanding. And who is any one of us to decide boundaries to such a thing? You have to be technically insane.

“Think psychiatry has nothing to do with you? Think again. Through rare historical and contemporary footage and interviews with more than 160 doctors, attorneys, educators, survivors and experts on the mental health industry and its abuses, this riveting documentary blazes the bright light of truth on the brutal pseudoscience and the multi-billion dollar fraud that is psychiatry. We think you have the right to know the cold, hard facts about psychiatry, its practitioners and the threat they pose to our children. Watch this video and then visit cchr.org for more information.

“A film by David Cherniack Productions in association with Global Vision Corporation and Mystic Fire Video Fire on the Mountain: A Gathering of Shamans is a documentary about the connection between consciouness and nature, as embodied in the spiritual traditions of Indigenous Peoples, whose ecological metaphors of the sacred are so relevant to the modern world. We shot the project in 1997 at an historic 10-day gathering of shamans from five continents, who travelled to Karma Ling, a Tibetan Buddhist retreat centre in the Val Saint Hugon in Savoy, in the French Alps, to discuss their concerns with H.H. the Dalai Lama and high-level representatives of the world’s religions. This documentary embodies the wish of these Indigenous People – all traditional wisdom-keepers, shamans and medicine-women – who requested us to communicate their message to the world. The video can be purchased by online mailorder from Mystic Fire Video at http://www.mysticfire.com

“This Documentary film produced by Michal Tsarion and Blue Fire Film explores humankind’s future and the post-human world. Will the perfect human be a dumbed-down, regimented inhabitant of a cyber purgatory created by unseen elites? Will the children of tomorrow be smiling depressives of technocratic dystopia?”

Tsarion is a passionate deconstructionist and makes some compelling socio-historical commentary in this film, in particular his notion of ‘buying the lie’ over being ‘told the lie’. But be warned, it may all sound a bit wishy-washy in the beginning: be patient with it, it will gather intertia and it will deliver.

A whirlwind world tour of some of the craziest unanswerable questions archaeology and history has to offer us. And, yeah, as pointed out below, the music is great.

“Find out where Religion originated from. And that Religious characters are just myths from ancient egypt. If you do your own research you will find it to be true. Im currently Researching and cant find any faults in this documentary.”

I consider myself agnostic – I think atheism is arrogant, philosophically unsound, painfully unscientific and hypocritical – and I am severely cautious about any “Godless” direction taken by anyone in any humane social discipline, save History. In conclusion to such debate I like to coin the oft sought-after phrase, “Ideas don’t kill people, people-so-rigidly-adhered-to-them-so-as-to-believe-anyone-believing-otherwise-must-be-murdered do.”

A very good documentary. A man whose exploits and mixed bag of achievements, among other things, brought the East and West the closest to nuclear stand-off than any other time during the Cold War.