| News Release from Rupert Sheldrake Online (Hat tip, Dave Lull.) |
The TED controversy continues. My TEDx talk on "The Science Delusion" was removed from the regular TEDx platform and relegated to a Naughty Corner of the internet, along with Graham Hancock's talk on consciousness and psychedelics, after objections from militant atheist bloggers in the US. This caused a storm of protest on the internet, and TED tried to justify their actions and their defamatory remarks about me and Hancock by posting a statement from their anonymous Science Board. All their points the Board raised were easy to refute. Chris Anderson, the head of TED, rang me up and we had a long conversation, as a result of which they deleted the Science Board's statement and published my response, here:
Rupert's Response
TED then opened a series of discussion forums, including one called "The debate about Rupert Sheldrake's talk". Altogether there have now been more than 5,000 comments, far more than for any other TED talk. The controversy is now being reported in the press, and was in the Independent on Sunday yesterday, where a new online discussion is now taking place:
Independent Online Discussion.
Meanwhile, under continuing pressure from the militant atheist lobby, TED officials have extended the purge and have revoked the licence for an upcoming TEDx event in West Hollywood on April 14, on the grounds that their Science Board thought it might involve "pseudoscience". The speakers they objected to were Russell Targ, one of the doyens of ESP research, Marilyn Schlitz, who was until recently President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and Larry Dossey, a pioneer in the exploration of the role of spirituality in healthcare. Fortunately the event is going ahead anyway, called exTEDx, and will be streamed live. Details here:
The exTEDx Event
I am speaking at the Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub on Wednesday this week, and on April 20 giving a 1-day workshop at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, on "Science and Spiritual Practices" together with the Dean of the Cathedral, Dermot Dunne. I am also giving a talk in Glasgow on May 1. Details are on my schedule.
Here's what I just posted over at the TED blog:
ReplyDeleteThe more they refuse to debate, to respond, and to listen to reason, but maintain their alliance with the extremists, TED, wittingly or not, is becoming an important branch of the materialistic atheists, as they are justifiably being called. In fact, it's scientism, nearly by definition, a definition that TED is wearing like a bishop's robe, and especially by the application of their reactions to Sheldrake, Hancock, and now West Hollywood, of what is allowed to be discussed, and what is not.
What we have been injected with in their talks is the "wonderful physical world" absent any spirit. It is the drug dogmatic scientistic atheists must take, possibly because they have had some psychological need or imperative to suck their very own spirituality out of the world. These talks are a drug to keep them occupied in their world without spirit. Each talk injects with the high available in this box, the package they want to deal to a high world. The more strokes they get, the more high groupies, the more their box is reinforced. The fact that there are brilliant people, people of honest contribution, whose life works and passions, fit into their parameters, makes the people of TED think they are brilliant by association, and reinforces their dogma. It's not that TED is a cult, but that they are a PR tool of scientism.
I don't have a problem with TED not allowing certain speakers. They're a private group, not bound by the Constitution. What amuses me is their inability to vet their speakers before they issue the invitations. That tells me TED is filled with chowderheads unable to use the Internet.
ReplyDeleteExcellent point, Bill.
ReplyDelete