The Veritas Forum: Belief in an Age of Skepticism?

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"Belief in an Age of Skepticism?"
March 4, 2008, at The University of California, Berkeley

Noted pastor and author Dr. Tim Keller discusses the place of exclusive truth in a pluralistic society in Wheeler Auditorium, followed by a Q&A session.

Hosted by Reformed University Fellowship, Dr. Keller's talk is part of The Veritas Forum at Cal, following Francis Collins' lecture in February on Christianity and science.

For more Veritas Forum recordings, visit:

Channel: Education
Uploaded: March 7, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Author: ucberkeleyevents

Length: 01:34:18
Rating: 4.62
Views: 35682

Tags: uc ucberkeley university california berkeley veritas religion keller

Video Comments:
descryIAm (December 25, 2008 at 1:24 pm)
The very idea of God has given rise, in men, to play God. There you will find pride. Men are not to be feared into believing in God, or oppressed into believing, or rediculed because they don't believe in God. The problem is God. The problem is fear. The problem is oppression. The problem is the illusion until we see for sure.

The solution is teaching the purpose of the morals of why we should be kind. Because if we don't, then we'll have wars on our hands.
I believe firmly in the 10 laws.
descryIAm (December 25, 2008 at 1:27 pm)
Today, people believe in God, but don't hold any of the 10 commandments. Or only hold 9 of them, or only 7, or 2 of them only. The vague teachings, without understanding first hand and actaully seeing what lies cause, or what envy does to people, or what judging someone does, or what cheating does, or what pride does, or belittling someone does to everyone and even to ourselves. Belittling someone means you have put yourself above another purpose. THAT is us playing God. We do it and are unaware
descryIAm (December 25, 2008 at 1:34 pm)
People need to ask themselves, "were they feared into believing in God?" If so,that was not god. That was man. That's not a peaceful God. "Were we condemed into believing?" These are the things that turned me away after I was ripped apart by fear and condemnation. Deep in the pit of my self-worth, which IS a person's soul, and my spirit, which IS my feelings, it never had to be that confusing. But religeon made it that way. I know there's a creator, because I look at the stars, earth, the orbits
descryIAm (December 25, 2008 at 1:38 pm)
But I also have my own heart, mind, self worth, actions, abilities, capacity, focus, learning experiences, energy level. We are all different in this way. We all have this.. and I think its important and most essential that its understanding the commandments, and what the long term affects of not following them will do to us as a people instead of re-reading a book over and over and over that only confuses us more instead of giving us understanding.
Sorry for so many words.
Peaae everyone.
YogiToad (December 24, 2008 at 11:18 am)
11:40. Rubbish. Europe, In particular the Dutch speaking countries has thrown off the yoke of fantasy friends. There have been numerous studies that indicate the higher the education of a group of people and the higher ones own I.Q. the less likely the group or the individual will be deluded.
pillowstomper (December 25, 2008 at 8:50 pm)
You operate under two basic assumptions:

1. There is no God, it take faith to doubt too.
2. The number of people believing or not believing has an effect on its truth.

Deluded? Fantasy friends. look if you are trying to maintain you have higher logic then use good logic in your arguments please. Lay off ad homenim and bandwagon approaches, they don't help anyone... especially those using them while claiming superior logical faculties.
YogiToad (December 30, 2008 at 8:49 am)
Ha!I um..never mentioned any kind of belief system, I simply off the cuff quoted solid finding from reputable studies. The question of an intellect behind the universe remains unanswered, and unproven. I would never assume that I know the answer to that question. No one does, and neither does anyone who quantifies it with iconography.
kxnipt (December 11, 2008 at 4:43 pm)
You are also correct to say, I am NOT 100% certain there is no god or tooth fairy. BUT it isn't any other quantity either!!!
It's NOT two choices to me. A) There is a tooth fairy, B) there is no tooth fairy. To me it's all ridiculous. Just as the square root of a porkchop does not have any meaning to me. (another bad illustration but I hope you laughed) Therefore the concept of faith has no bearing in the matter. No religion, no god, no faith either.
mil17717 (December 18, 2008 at 5:24 pm)
Well, doubt is something quite different from saying emphatically that there is no God. Agnosticism is different from atheism. Agnostics are unsure about the existence of God. Atheists are adamant about the non-existence of God. What you're referring to here is agnosticism. Atheism requires faith because atheists strongly adhere to the belief that there is no God, even if they have no credible proof upon which they can base their belief. So, I argue that the concept of faith does have bearing.
kxnipt (December 11, 2008 at 4:38 pm)
You are correct, you cannot compare the two! And anyway, the comparison I made was god and the tooth fairy, not gravity. The thing about gravity in my daily life: I was NOT making a quantitative comparison, just an illustrative example. Kind of like when they make those silly illustrations like: we use x number of miles of cable in our widgits. That's enough to run back and forth to the moon three times.