TED 2006 - Rick Warren: Part One of Deconstructing Faith

Next up in interesting twenty minute talks is Rick Warren. Warren represents the next generation of mass religion. He founded the Saddleback Church near Irvine in 1980, which now hosts tens of thousands of attendees each week. He has worked with nearly half a million ministers and priests of various religious denominations all over the world. His book The Purpose Driven Life has sold something like thirty million copies. He is a master of entrpreneurial religion. To his credit, he is directing a significant part of his wealth and political power towards issues that actually matter, like global poverty and environmental destruction, instead of wasting everybody's time on poisonous fatwas about sex and drugs and rock-and-roll. I was raised in a deeply religious family. Personally, I've had my fill of people claiming to interpret God's will on my behalf, and have little patience for people like Rick Warren. But whatever you might think about mass organized faith, it behooves you to know about this guy. He is one of the most influential religious leaders in the United States today, directly touching the lives of far more people than fraudulent wingnuts like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. An amazing thing happened at TED this year. Originally, Rick Warren was going to speak towards the end of the conference, but he had to leave early, so his talk got moved into a slot just before Daniel Dennett, who is arguably one of the ten best philosophers alive right now. As it happened, Dennett's talk is about faith as well, but from an evolutionary cognition perspective, and Dennett had several things to say about the Rick Warren phenomenon specifically. Dennett thought that he was going to say his piece to set up the discussion, and Warren would get a chance to respond a couple of days later. As it happened, Warren said his piece and left. Dennett's response was swift and sure. It was a phenomenal event. We'll run Dennett in a future podcast.