Maybe it’s a bit clickbaity to use the word “versus” in the title, but since Aslan is a faith-coddler, and the other religionist, William Schweiker, is identified as “Leading Theologian and Ordained Minister of the United Methodist Church, Author of Dust that Breathes: Christian Faith and the New Humanisms, and Director of Enhancing Life Project”, this looks to be a discussion in which there will be disagreement. And it looks like big fun.
Click on screenshot to go to the site, where you can register (just give your name and email) to get one or more free online tickets (click on the green “register” button). I’m going, and of course I’ll report on how it went.
Here’s the description of the program.
Tuesday, February 5th at 5:30 PM
The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
915 East 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
The Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge invites you to a discussion about the past, present, and future of belief. Join award-winning writer and commentator Reza Aslan (author of Beyond Fundamentalism), controversial philosopher of science and culture Daniel Dennett (author of Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon), and respected religious ethicist William Schweiker for a conversation that will take the long view on religion as a human enterprise: its history, its power, and its prospects. We hope to bring believers, critics, and everyone in between into a productive—and provocative—dialogue about the place of faith in our changing world.
Religion, Identity and the Construction of Faith will be moderated by David Nirenberg, Interim Dean of the UChicago Divinity School. The discussion will be held at the University of Chicago’s Reva and David Logan Center Performance Hall on February 5, 2019. Doors open to the public at 5:00 p.m.; the event will run from 5:30-7:00 p.m., with a reception to follow.
Award-winning titles by these acclaimed authors will be available for sale by the Seminary Co-op Bookstore in the lobby of the Logan Center Performance Hall from 4:30-7:30.
Given the moderator and discussants, it looks as if Dennett will be playing the role of the Greeks at Thermopylae.
I look forward to the report. The last time I made dragged myself down to London was when Dan Dennet address the British Humanists a few years back. Well worth the effort, even the overnight stay.
addressed. I really can’t multitask, so I must stop trying 😯
Interesting choices of descriptors: “award-winning “, “respected ” and then “controversial “.
Good catch.
And it’s still early out here in the west 🙂
Exactly what I was going to say. No favoritism showing here.
I guess being a religious ethicist is just way more respectable, though I suspect the title is akin to Zee in Antz describing himself as a “soil relocation engineer”.
The contrast sometimes is with “philosophical ethicist”.
I’ve added a “note the adjectives” to the post; I didn’t catch that!
🙂 Looking forward to your report.
Reza Aslan has eaten human flesh, but apparently that’s not as controversial as Dennett’s work…
Yup. Reza should be described as “consistent fabricator of facts and statistics, and falsifier of his own credentials.” Instead, he is somehow celebrated.
You beat me to it: the respected philosopher Daniel Dennett and the controversial attention seeker Reza Aslan would be more like it.
sub
It will be fascinating to observe the difference between reasoning and weaseling.
I wonder if Deepak will be there?
It would be nice if it was filmed for viewing by a wider audience.
+1 Since it is a university event, can we count on it? They do have a YouTube channel with some conference videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx68THFECtuAHBOIc_8WeZA. I’ve subscribed so I should get notified.
Thanks. I’ve also subscribed.
YouTube’s been acting up lately and some videos aren’t appearing on my subscription feed, or even on the channel page, so you might want to take note of that.
-Ryan
I wonder if someone will ask Reza if assaulting children is an article of faith…
It’s unfortunate that Reza a good speaker and so willing to completely fabricate statistics (and his own credentials). People believe him when he spouts completely false information simply because he sounds credible and “like an expert.” He has consistently lied his damn ass off and never gets called out on it by anyone in the mainstream media. That man pisses me off to no end.
I think he’s not an historian of religion, as he often claims, and has almost no credentials. He teaches writing classes. I hope Dennett is thoroughly briefed on Azlan’s background.
I bought Aslan’s Zealot for $1.98 new, and upon reading it, discovered why it was available for $1.98 new.
Ouch!
+1👍 I had a similar experience with “The Art of the Deal” back in the late eighties.
I’m reminded somewhat of the Python Sketch, The Argument. When Palin approaches the secretary about booking an argument, she consults her schedule book and says “Mr. Baker’s free…but he’s a little bit conciliatory…”
And so she books him with the feistier “Mr. Bonnard” – John Cleese.
That’s somewhat how I feel about Dennett in debates with the religious. He ends up a bit too easy going and avuncular, giving a bit more ground than I’d prefer to see, where other atheist debaters will pounce and go for the jugular 🙂
I think his father was a diplomat. That may explain Dennett’s avuncularity.
Apparently Dan Dennett Sr. was killed in Sudan as a consequence of some kind of Cold War political intrigue. His sister, Charlotte Dennett, has a Go Fund Me effort underway to help find out the details.
And by “Sudan”, I mean “Ethiopia”. Doh.