I received an email from the director of PR at my university last week looking for an expert on religion to comment on a news story the local Fox affiliate was running about heaven and different conceptions of heaven. While a religious studies scholar might have been a better option, I figured I know enough about different religions’ conceptions of heaven to comment intelligently about the subject, so I agreed to go on the air for the interview. It aired last night.
@Mario
Yeah, they cut about 10 minutes of discussion down to about 3 minutes. Even so, they really didn’t end up asking me to talk about the stuff I was invited there to discuss – different conceptions of heaven. I think they were looking for a scientist who believes in heaven to debate the atheist, but they never said that directly. Kind of weird.
There’s some shady fox-news-editing going on there during the interview… 😉
Yeah… kind of odd the questions he was asking. I couldn’t figure out where he was trying to go… But at least you’re becoming something of a local celebrity 🙂
I found it interesting that almost everyone’s description of heaven included something about freedom from problems/struggle. I’m curious to know what would drive people to do anything if there were no struggle.
I also find the question about “if you don’t believe in heave, why work for peace now?” curious. What is the implication, those who believe in heaven only want to get along with others because they fear eternal wrath? You don’t see any other intrinsic value to living peacefully with your neighbor?
After 5.5 minutes, I almost thought they were only going to let you say the 10 second comment about pre-conceived notions of heaven re: near death experiences.
@Ezra
I think the “if you don’t believe in heaven, why work for peace?” question was coming from the old assumption that if there were no religion, there would be no morality. You know, “If it weren’t for my belief in eternal punishment, I’d be a bank-robbing sex fiend who beats up people for fun.”
You did well, Ryan!
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