3. Is There a God?

Pregunta de Elección Múltiple

Pregunta

Believe
Image by Jon Robson in Flickr. CC.

What do you think is the percentage of Americans who believe in

  • God?

Respuestas

68%

82%

93%

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

  • Angels?

Respuestas

38%

65%

72%

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

  • Astrology?

Respuestas

26%

48%

51%

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

  • Creationism?

Respuestas

60%

40%

20%

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

  • UFOs?

Respuestas

43%

32%

21%

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

  • Ghosts

Respuestas

42%

32%

22%

Retroalimentación

Listen to the following extract from Michael Shermer’s The Believing Brain and find out if you were right.

Pregunta Verdadero-Falso

Now answer these questions.

Pregunta 1

More people believe in angels and the devil than they believe in the theory of evolution.

Pregunta 2

The surveys show significant differences in beliefs among people from different countries.

Pregunta 3

In the 2006 survey, there were more people who said they had seen a ghost than people who believed near-death experiences are proof of an afterlife.

Pregunta 4

The NSF’s survey proves that the media are to blame for the dismal state of science education.

Pregunta 5

The more educated the people, the more they believe in alternative medicine.

Pregunta 6

It is more important to teach how science works instead of the rote memorization of scientific facts.

Here you have the audioscript.

In the following video, atheist Ricky Gervais proves a formidable opponent for Roman Catholic Stephen Colbert in a spirited conversation about belief, religion and atheism.

Video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on youtube

According to Gervais, what is the difference between science books and religious books?

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Which words and phrases from the conversation mean...?

in a few words
a special token, or device worn as a sign of allegiance, membership, authority or achievement
incapable of being fully understood
pressed with violence and noise
a title given by a British king or queen for achievements or service to the country

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Read the following text and complete the missing words.

Death
Image by Martin Hesketh in Flickr. CC.

What should we think about death?

One thing we can be sure of is that we will die. Everybody will. Some people do not like the of this and don't accept it. They prefer to think that death is not the end of us but that we live on, perhaps in another life on earth, or in another place where people are rewarded or punished. But wanting something to be true is not the same as it true. And there is no to support the idea that our minds could survive the end of our bodies. What sense could we of the things that we value -love, experiences, communication, achievements, the warmth of the sun on our face - if we were disembodied? And if life were eternal, it lose much of what gives it shape, structure, meaning and purpose?

Think about reading a good book or eating a cake. These may be great pleasures, but one of the things that makes them pleasures is that they come to an . A book that went on and on forever and a cake that you never stopped eating would both soon lose their .

Death is a natural part of life.

It makes for us to try not to be afraid of this but instead to to terms with it.

Then we can on finding meaning and purpose in the here and now, the most of the one life we know we have and helping others to do the same, choosing good evil without the expectation of reward in some other place.

When we die, we will live on in the work we have done and in the memories of the other people lives we have been part of. Our bodies will break up and become part again of the cycle of nature. The atoms that form us now will go on to form other things: trees and birds, flowers and butterflies.

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Objetivos

Get Thinking

What about you? We are not going to ask you to share your beliefs, but you may want to reflect upon the reasons you believe or do not believe in a superior being which rules the human world.