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  1. I have always seen Buddhism as a way of life.
    2 points
  2. i can't believe whether this video was banned or not has become a bone of contention. Explain to me the relevancy of debating that. It's like my tendency to be argumentative has become contagious. i guess it's inevitable that personality clashes manifest themselves in these discussions, and at some point the accusations peppering this post have distracted from the more interesting topic of science dogma.
    2 points
  3. @Mel Hopkins, I agree 100%.
    2 points
  4. IMHO, No. Science has not become the new religion. Science requires a query, observation, contemplation, analysis, etc. Religion requires obedience.
    2 points
  5. @Troy You've made somewhat of a qualified statement, here. But It's as if you'd like to refute "banning or censorship" based on the information we supply to you. To avoid confirmation bias, it's best to look for several sources of your own. For example, one of several sources I used was the link in the video itself to arrive at the censorship conclusion. @zaji was gracious enough to even provide you with her arc of thinking on how she arrived at her conclusion of censorship. But that doesn't support your stated belief that "It doesn't seem like it would be something TED would ban" So in answer to your question, yes, I know it to be the case based on evidence I've seen. I think that @Delano, @zaji know too. So, maybe if you find something different it will make for an eye-opening even fascinating discussion.
    2 points
  6. Yes and no. We'd have leverage if we stop spending and borrowing. Also if we chose not to work for corporations but instead grew and produce raw materials, assembled products and sell wholesale to large corporations. Becoming producers would allow us leverage. We'd absolutely have to function as a monolith to make that happen. As far as wealth is concerned, however, we don't have leverage. We spend a lot of money but we own next to nothing. Black wealth is near zero percent here in America. Less than 1 percent of Black-American families have a net worth of 1.4 million. According to an article I read, 98 percent of available land is owned by white families. So, if we were to grow our own food or raise cattle or dairy cows we wouldn't have enough land to allow our animals to graze or provide them enough water. So, monetarily, if we were a country - we'd be a poor country with a lot of debt. Democratic capitalism isn't working for black folks as a whole here in America or elsewhere . Aside: I've pulled this information before when looking at the state of black women. Here's a link to an article that shares a lot of the stats I've read in the past.
    2 points
  7. I discovered this video reading an article about Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor on Munchies I'm still listening to it -- not even halfway through (Nikki Giovanni just read a poet to and for Lena Horne and they just started a conversation. This is just a great video featuring different Black women in conversation, singing, dancing, poetry -- a terrific compilation and demonstrates why we need Black media. The following a from the video description on Youtube: Inspired by the book by Chester Higgins, this special episode of Black Journal features a discussion between Joan Harris, Vertamae Grosvenor, Martha Davis, Marian Watson and Amma Baraka. A separate conversation between Nikki Giovanni and Lena Horne. Poetry by Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez and Kali. Plus performances by Roberta Flack, Loretta Abbott and Novella Nelson. Interview with Albert Cleage, Jr. of the Black Madonna Church. Executive Produced by Tony Brown. Directed by Stan Lathan.
    1 point
  8. @Cynique, maybe that is what I found appealing. I never saw anything like this before. I would rather see programming ike this than see the new Black Panther flick (or any film from Disney). Today these types of conversation are not even being had -- at least not to the degree that they were 50 years ago. This type of TV programming was a special broadcast of the Tony Brown's Journal, which was on TV at the same time that Gil Noble's Like It Is broadcast. In my mind, this was the pinnacle of Black TV. If anything came close to it today I'm not aware of it -- if you are please share.
    1 point
  9. Del I'd discourage you from ever critiquing anyone's writing. As far as the other stuff, I give.
    1 point
  10. @Delano I attended St. John's University, where there is a Vincentian mission. I didn't find out my philosophy books were censored until my oldest daughter went to college and took the same philosophy class! I still have my Socrates to Satre text book and guess what's missing? The allegory of the cave LOL! Anyway, I'm not talking about clergy or scientists and their individual pursuits. I'm referring to the differences between religion and science. We have CERN where they are smashing atoms - "Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works." Today, Pluto is no longer a planet . However- alterations aside, there hasn't been any updates to the quran , or scriptures. Religion requires obedience. You can think and discuss it until the cows come home; but you either follow its tenets or you don't.
    1 point
  11. @Del I disagree. All the things you say religion has espoused are extra-curricula activities. None of these pursuits altered the adherence to the arbitrary religious tenets of those who dabbled in other fields. Science never espouses religion. BTW, whether Buddhism is a religion or a philosophy is debatable. Many call it a way of life.
    1 point
  12. I disagree. I went to a Jesuit school and we discussed religion. I think religion can have all of the elements that you mentioned. And it definitely is true for priest. The following "priest'' were big thinkers Buddha , St. Thomas Aquinas , Albert Einstein , Martin Luther King , Cornell West . Also I would include the monks who were also scribes. At one point churches funded universities and there priests who studied alchemy magic astrology /astronomy and mathematics.
    1 point
  13. An extraordinary video in that almost 50 years later the questions raised back then are still timely. it's why i am so jaded because everything being said today, I've heard before. Been there, done that. And still that rift between black men and women exists and the relationship between black people and the white society remains problematic. Sometimes, the more things change, the more they become the same.
    1 point
  14. Good read! Thanks for sharing.
    1 point
  15. Your not understanding me isn't a function of my writing. Does anyone write with perfect clarity and fidelity. That statement by you is symptomatic of our communication problems. You make some gross generalizations. Like saying an opinion is wrong. A science as a society is different from society. If I call you on it you get defensive. Sometimes you come across authoritative. Maybe that's just my perception.
    1 point
  16. @Cynique the people who create movies and build the hype behind them are really very good at what they do. This more than anything else explains why people are in a frenzy over the fictional country of Wakanda rather than Tulsa Oklahoma. The marketers who get us all hyped about a film could use this talent to generate hype over actual Black history, which in my opinion is far more fascinating, but uplifting people is not as lucrative as selling movie tickets. @Delano, Have you seen the film?
    1 point
  17. Pioneer you know Black people invented science. Why do you insist on making it a western presumably European thing? Also don't confuse science with it practitioners. Science is a monolith, but there are practitioners who are liars and would pervert science to their own purposes. People do the same thing with religion. Voodoo and science can coexist it does not have to be science. Why make it an either/or proposition? Del, your question, "Does that mean Christians can't be mathematicians? Since reliqion and science are incompatible" is almost bizarre. Who said religion and science are incompatible? Of course a Christian can be a mathematician, but who was talking about Christians and Mathematicians?! Again that was a very odd question...
    1 point
  18. If someone else understand what I wrote and you don't .Then perhaps it is not my inability to communicate...
    1 point
  19. Mel What's with you and all this "Black women gotta do this" and "Black women gotta do that" ????? Are you and Michelle Obama trying to get together and start your own Black Girls Rock Amazon tribe.....lol. Also if we chose not to work for corporations but instead grew and produce raw materials, assembled products and sell wholesale to large corporations. Becoming producers would allow us leverage. We'd absolutely have to function as a monolith to make that happen. I don't think we have to be a monolith as a community to make this happen. We have so many Black people in America that even if just 10% of Black people agreed to work together to produce our own food and assemble our own products that would still be 4 to 5 million people....which is more than enough to do it. Elijah Muhammad with the Nation of Islam grew their own food, made their own clothes, and ran their own stores and restaurants with less than 1 million members in the entire organization. Infact, look at the Amish and what they're able to accomplish with their minimal numbers. Our biggest problem is that the SMARTEST of Black people too often would rather take their intelligence and talents and negotiate a pay check from White people to help build White society INSTEAD OF staying in their own communities and using those same talents to build up Black America. As far as wealth is concerned, however, we don't have leverage. We spend a lot of money but we own next to nothing. Black wealth is near zero percent here in America. Less than 1 percent of Black-American families have a net worth of 1.4 million. According to an article I read, 98 percent of available land is owned by white families. You have an excellent point about the available land mostly owned by White families, however this is where the more CONSERVATIVE side of me comes out. While I don't disagree with anything you said, I will say this. When we speak of wealth, White people didn't get their wealth from the moon. Besides the land they took from the Native Americans and the labor they forced Black people to engage in....they basically MADE THEIR OWN WEALTH and gave it value by working dilligently in their own economic system. Black people are going to have to learn that real wealth isn't GIVEN...it's PRODUCED. Going to work for Google and getting a $2,000 a week pay check from them isn't wealth. If I get a plot of land and plant 1500 banana trees.....those bananas are WEALTH. The land it's own is WEALTH. The money I get from selling them is WEALTH. It's not really wealth if someone else controls it's distribution and flow; it's not really wealth until YOU have a measure of control over it. In other words, Black people need to stop waiting on White people to GIVE them loans, grants, and a template or framework in which to acquire wealth and instead use our own creativity and what we already have at our disposal to start generating it among ourselves.
    1 point
  20. Troy What?! Your categorization of science is completely wrong @Pioneer1. Science, unlike the world's great religions, would change a belief tomorrow if new information was presented that proved the current belief false. You speak as if the scientific community is a monolith. There are many conflicting and contradicting positions WITHIN Western science. You see this with BIG PHARMA all the time where certain drugs are deemed safe now but were considered dangerous in the past....only because there wasn't much money to be made or some politician didn't receive a big enough bribe to vote for it. So this so-called "science" changes based not only on new information but fresh money....lol.   Indeed, it is often religion that holds science back, even killing people for speaking the truth because it conflicts with religious doctrine. This practice continues to this day. I'd even argue that religion holds back spirituality. Some religions may hold people back spiritually but science tends to rob them of their spirituality ALL TOGETHER. Keep in mind that when I say "science" I'm not talking about KNOWLEDGE in general from where the word supposedly got it's name from; I'm talking about that general body of information that has been ordained as acceptable by the majority of Western institutions. There is a lot of truth and wisdom and knowledge in Voodoo....but it's not accepted as "science". There is a lot of truth, wisdom and knowledge in Native American, African, and ancient Asian culture and belief systems.....but the knowledge they offer is not accepted as part of official "science". People all around the world for millions of years and more have believe in spirits and souls, but because Western scientists claim they can't test it in a laboratory....they don't consider it part of "science". As far as many in Western academia are concerned, if it didn't come from a White man in a white coat with glasses....it must not be true, lol. If any religion is guilty of holding people back spiritually, it's the organized religion of WESTERN SCIENCE.
    1 point
  21. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/25/books/how-to-think-about-science.html
    1 point
  22. @Troy. Actually, it seemed he was merely repeating the title of the video itself (but much later). When I first saw the post, I watched the video immediately and saw the title where it said it was banned. At that point, he had made no comment on whether it was banned. He didn't need to. The title of the video itself said it all. So I went about looking it up to see if it was banned and found the information about it being taken down on TED's own website. I did that research on my own. AFTER I read the information on TED's website about them banning it (or as they put it, removal from the main area), I saw him begin noting that it was censorship. At least for me, he did not state it was censorship PRIOR to ME finding the information on my own on TED's website. Once again, I researched because of the title of the video, NOT because of anything @Delano wrote.
    1 point
  23. Troy you are the first person to mention it was banned. I posted it but I didn't mention it was banned. I also stated I hadn't watched it yet. @Troy Zahir and Mel both commented on the link. So it should be pretty easy to find.
    1 point
  24. Back to the original subject of science as dogma, one of the guest on Dr Oz's show today was a physician, who after considerable research declared that contrary to the medical's community's dogma, salt is not as "poisonous" as they claim it to be. He said salt-free diets do as much harm as good, and salt substitutes are the real poison. He further contended that salt is a necessary valuable nutrient, an electrolyte which reduces dehydration from fluid loss. He stated further that it is a generalization to assert that everybody is affected by salt the same way, and the idea that salt exacerbates such diseases as high blood pressure and diabetes depends on a person's metabolism because salt can actually help in deterring these diseases. He went on to say said that sugar is the real culprit and that salt neutralizes a craving for sugar. He concluded by saying that salting to one's taste is not harmful. Dr. Oz, who is a heart surgeon, acknowledged that he raised valid points but that his claims were controversial and not likely to gain wide-spread acceptance in the near future. I agree. Nevertheless, i have been a "saltoholic" all my life and have never taken any medical advice to cut my salt intake. i always believed that my body craved salt because it needed it, not to mention that salt makes food taste sooo much better. As far as i can tell, my liberal use of salt has had no major effect on my health and i've outlived a many friends and relatives who avoided salt. I don't have a rabid sweet tooth, and i've never used sugar substitutes, so i agree that it just depends on our metabolism and our genes. We know our bodies better than anyone, and at my age, eating whatever i like to eat, is one of the few pleasure i have left in life, which means i still eat red meat as well as pork, and soul food with all of its calories and cholesterol, is never something pass up. i gave up smoking because cigarettes cost too much, but i drink when when liquor is available at any social gathering i attend. i pop pills that include all kinds of "over-the-counter" supplements, like gingko biloba, fish oil, aspirin, garlic caps, ginger root, and have just recently added magnesium and potassium tablets to the mix, with good results. i know nobody cares about my health regimen, but if i make it to 85 in August, i can attribute my longevity to being the poster girl for taking medical dogma with a grain of salt. If i drop dead tomorrow, i will become the "salt of the earth".
    1 point
  25. @Delano I went back to double check your original post (to make sure I didn't forget) and I see that you actually did not make the assertion that the video was banned. The video title made that assertion, which is why i went to research it on my own and had no need to challenge you or ask you to explain anything. Thanks again for sharing the video!!
    1 point
  26. I forgot to add to my previous post that I prefer science to religion, because science consists of examination and enlightenment, and religion is about instruction and obedience. Science stimulates; religion stagnates. Religion claims the power of prayer, but to me, praying is an exercise in energizing positive thought waves, and has its counterpart in the "wishing" indulged in by the non-religious. Whether prayers or wishes come into fruition depends upon Fate, which is not wedded to the hopes of mere mortals because it is fickle. A meme which always pops when a national disaster occurs. Just substitute "Florida"' for "Texas".
    1 point
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