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Celtic Radio Community > Kirk and Chapel > Pbs Series - The Question Of God


Posted by: MacAibhistin 06-Oct-2004, 07:38 PM
Did anyone see this 2 part series contrasting C.S.Lewis' embrace of Christianity and Sigmund Freud's embrace of athiesm?

What did you think of this program?

Personally, I really enjoyed the round table discussions, but felt the editing sucked as many good conversations were cut off?

What were your thoughts?

Rory

Posted by: Cailiosa 06-Oct-2004, 09:45 PM
I'm so mad I missed this program. sad.gif Could you possibly fill those of us who didn't catch it as to what it was about?

Posted by: MacAibhistin 09-Oct-2004, 08:26 PM
Sorry to take a long time in responding, Cailiosa, but it has been a busy week. The show was a four hour documentary/round table disscussion style program. There were dramatisations of the the lives of C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud that followed the major milestones in their lives, and showed how they developed intellectually. The focus was on on how CS Lewis eventually turned from athiesm to Christianity through intellectual reasoning and Freud went from a Jewish upbringing to a reasoned atheistic position. Then, interpersed between the dramatisations, was a round table discussion of 7 or 8 individuals of varying degrees of faith - from a staunch Christian believer through to an atheist and various levels of believe in between. The discussions would pick up where one of the dramatisations would leave off. I found the discussion part very interesting and I wish they would have shown more if it.

Here's a bit from the PBS website. You may find it interesting.

Rory

The Question of God, a four-hour series on PBS, explores in accessible and dramatic style issues that preoccupy all thinking people today: What is happiness? How do we find meaning and purpose in our lives? How do we reconcile conflicting claims of love and sexuality? How do we cope with the problem of suffering and the inevitability of death? Based on a popular Harvard course taught by Dr. Armand Nicholi, author of The Question of God, the series illustrates the lives and insights of Sigmund Freud, a life-long critic of religious belief, and C.S. Lewis, a celebrated Oxford don, literary critic, and perhaps this century's most influential and popular proponent of faith based on reason.

"It may be that Freud and Lewis represent conflicting parts of ourselves," Dr. Nicholi notes. "Part of us yearns for a relationship with the source of all joy, hope and happiness, as described by Lewis, and yet, there is another part that raises its fist in defiance and says with Freud, 'I will not surrender.' Whatever part we choose to express will determine our purpose, our identity, and our whole philosophy of life."

Through dramatic storytelling and compelling visual re-creations, as well as interviews with biographers and historians, and lively discussion, Freud and Lewis are brought together in a great debate. "The series presents a unique dialogue between Freud, the atheist, and Lewis, the believer," says Catherine Tatge, director of The Question of God. "Through it we come to understand two very different ideas of human existence, and where each of us, as individuals, falls as believers and unbelievers."

The important moments and emotional turning points in the lives of Freud and Lewis ? which gave rise to such starkly different ideas ? fuel an intelligent and moving contemporary examination of the ultimate question of human existence: Does God really exist?


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/program/index.html

Posted by: Annham 09-Oct-2004, 09:41 PM
Wow! sounds like a great show. I'm sorry I missed it too... sad.gif
Anne

Posted by: cori 10-Oct-2004, 11:33 AM
Wow, that sounds like a great program. I didn't see it, sad.gif but maybe they'll show it again.



Posted by: MacAibhistin 10-Oct-2004, 02:22 PM
PBS often replays their popular programs during their winter pledge drives. You can probably catch it them. It is well worth the watch. smile.gif

Rory

Posted by: Cailiosa 10-Oct-2004, 05:09 PM
Yeah, if I know PBS they'll definitely show this program again. I'll be on the lookout for when it's aired next.

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