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Karen Armstrong: Charter for Compassion

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Karen Armstrong on Suffering and the Power of Compassion

03 min 49 sec

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Author, scholar and journalist Karen Armstrong explains her view on the spectacle of suffering and its positive and negative effects on humanity. She relates suffering to compassion, recalling various Confucian, Buddhist, and Christian philosophies.
Armstrong Says Apply Wisdom of Socrates to Modern Dialog

03 min 10 sec

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Author, scholar and journalist Karen Armstrong discusses the need to apply Socratic philosophy to the counterproductive fierceness of modern debate. "Real philosophical debate...that is conducted in the spirit of malice or hate will not work," she says.
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01 hr 14 min 32 sec

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There are 9 comments on this program

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Previous FORAtv comments:

web coaster

Posted: 08.01.10, 04:48 PM

Yes it's quite amazing how she can portray herself as an expert on religion and especially on Islam and be so weak on actual knowledge. She can BS with supreme confidence. I was listening to her on CBC radio today talking about how all religions were speaking the same basic truths. The interviewer asked her about the claim of some that religion was just created because people are afraid to die. She responded with -- "it's just Christianity that talks so much about the afterlife. The other religions they talk about living in the present with compassion" (this is her current theory that all religions are about compassion). Anyone who does a casual reading on Islam knows that the afterlife is even more important in Islam than in Christianity. It's Christians who try to improve this life while Muslims blow themselves up for jihad expecting paradise. And Hinduism and Buddhism assume reincarnation. At one point she talked about how contemplation would show you the truth of the Trinity in One and One in the Trinity. She was obviously unaware that the Quran is clear and adamant that the Trinity is a false doctrine. So much for shared inherent truth. And the extent of the logical connections in her thinking. http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/podcast.html

web coaster

Posted: 07.26.10, 04:37 PM

Many scholars of Islam disagree with Karen Armstrong's claim that Islam has a golden rule that applies to the whole world and not just believers in Islam. Islam instructs its believers to subdue and even kill infidels. It's clearly in the Quran but Ms Armstrong ignores it. She seems to start her thinking with certain unexamined assumptions rather than troubling too much with facts. http://www.islam-watch.org/AyeshaAhm...Rule-Islam.htm .

abvgd123

Posted: 06.25.10, 02:52 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Madeleine Armstrong: "Every single one of the major world religions to my understanding has developed it's own version.....of the Golden Rule." The 'central thread of teaching running through'.. Islam is submittance, as made clear in sharia law. So Armstrong has a deficient understanding of both a major religion and of the Golden Rule. The former is a strict set of laws which cannot be challenged,changed, or denied. The latter is an attitude which understands and employs humanistic principles. No, she's actually a person that knows very well what Islam is all about. However, she makes serious money on politically correct books about Islam and Muhammad so she has to lie or at least conceal the truth in order to keep her position as an "objective" writer. She's simply acting according to her best interests, in pursuit of profit the truth becomes irrelevant, it's all about making money...

Donald Weetman Cameron

Posted: 01.15.10, 03:21 PM

Matthew 7:12 "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Luke 6:31 "Do to others as you would have them do to you." (verses are quoted in the New International Version of the Bible) The reason that it appears so similarly in each of these different books is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels--that is, they relate many of the same events and record many of the same teachings of Jesus; however, they were written from different perspectives and for different intended audiences. So some of the content is repeated between these books. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Were_in_th...to_do_unto_you

Madeleine

Posted: 01.15.10, 07:52 AM

Armstrong: "Every single one of the major world religions to my understanding has developed it's own version.....of the Golden Rule." The 'central thread of teaching running through'.. Islam is submittance, as made clear in sharia law. So Armstrong has a deficient understanding of both a major religion and of the Golden Rule. The former is a strict set of laws which cannot be challenged,changed, or denied. The latter is an attitude which understands and employs humanistic principles.

afzalrizvi

Posted: 12.30.09, 06:47 AM

There is much weight in Karen Armstrong's argument of seeking a combined gamut of religious wisdoms-the charter for compassion.