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• Dev Horn – October 14 2005

  I'm sorry - I realize now that you were talking about the original article and not what I wrote. I agree with you that that article was over the top.
  
  
  
  And I'm sorry that I let my emotions come out. I miss TED. I loved going.
  
  
  
  Dawkins just changed everything for me, and even now it is painful to think about it. I felt like I had been violated. As you can see years later it is still a terrible memory for me.
  
  
  
  I should have just sat on my hands here. I just came to the Blog and saw more Dawkins and then a condescending thing on religion and I had a reaction.
  
  
  
  Like I said, I wish you the best.

• Dev Horn – October 14 2005

  I believe that spirituality, specifically theology, is a wholly different thing than "the pursuit of happiness".
  
  
  
  I am sorry if sharing my thoughts made you physically ill. That was certainly not my intent. But I can say that I know how you feel, as Dawkins speech a few years back made me feel EXACTLY that way. I loved attending TED and even though we did not all share the same beliefs there was always respect for one another. What Dawkins did that day was shatter that illusion of respect. If you want to compare two things - forget about my comment. Go listen to Graham's talk, and then go listen to Dawkin's. It's one thing to share a different set of ideas or beliefs, but what he did was nothing but offensive. And he INTENDED for it to be offensive. You and others involved with TED were certainly not appauled by that, rather, it's seems that you were impressed, given your decision to continue to have him involved.
  
  
  
  I suggested at that time that rather than give lip service to spirituality by having an occasion guest, and since you had opened this can of worms, you should have had a debate between Dawkins and William Lane Craig or someone of similar stature that can address both the scientific and the spiritual and expose the weaknesses in Dawkin's arguments.
  
  
  
  You still have no idea what you did to those with spiritual belief that day. Frankly, I am STILL sickened by it, and still offended, and I think you have no comprehension of that.

• Chris Anderson – October 14 2005

  You say: "TED appears to have taken on sort of a celebration of godlessness, an absence of spirituality..."
  
  
  
  I say Not So. We celebrate science, to be sure, but a quick check back through the past few TED's would reveal plenty of speakers and moments that to me were profoundly spiritual. The French/Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard. Jane Goodall. Wade Davis. Anna Deveare Smith. Reverend Tom Honey's soul-searching on the tsunami. An entire TED devoted to a deeper understanding of 'the pursuit of happiness'.
  
  
  
  I agree Billy Graham gave a wonderful talk... completely different in tone, intelligence and insight from the article above that, frankly, made me feel physically sick.

• Dev Horn – October 14 2005

  I have no idea if Hurricane Katrina was "God's wrath" or not. Like Richard Dawkins himself said, we live in a middle world, but not just a physical world but a spiritual world. Many people cannot think outside of themselves, that a God might actually exist. I quit coming to TED after you gave Dawkins a forum to denegrate people who have spiritual beliefs, and his continued involvement in TED makes me realize I made the right decision.
  
  
  
  I do think that at least the half of the TEDsters that stood and applauded Dawkins that day do live in a completely material and physical world, and they reject the spiritual entirely (except perhaps Buddhism which is a celebration of self that excludes the idea of God). This exclusion then taints their logical thoughts and conclusions entirely, in that by excluding a spiritual dimension a priori, all their conclusions seem to support the lack of spirituality. Of course, they do, since the possibilty of a spiritual aspect to anything is discarded before any other consideration or analysis.
  
  
  
  TED appears to have taken on sort of a celebration of godlessness, an absence of spirituality. In doing so, it became somewhat of a vapor. Men and women commenting on pretty things they had made and clever ideas they had conceived.
  
  
  
  There was a TED where Billy Graham came. I remember it well. He was very ill and took great personal risk to come to speak to us. At the end of his talk, the entire crowd stood and applauded him (perhaps the longest applause in my many years attending TED), in stark contrast to the half that stood and applauded Dawkins. Do you remember what Graham said? You should replay that. I think little was learned or retained from that inspiring talk.
  
  
  
  There was a reason everyone stood and applauded though, I think. Everyone, in their hearts, knew there was something there. Something IN THEM was touched. Something that many choose to deny after the applause died down.
  
  
  
  I do think it is a mistake to look at a natural disaster and say that God was punishing people. I don't think we know for sure, and I think to make that claim is perhaps as arrogant as to claim that God does not exist at all.
  
  
  
  But I do believe there will be a moment where we are held accountable for what we did here, and whether we rejected God or not.
  
  
  
  If I am wrong, I really have nothing to lose. But if the non-believer is wrong, they have everything to lose.
  
  
  
  There is a cost to sin, even if it just the pain that we cause one another here on earth. And there is a cost for our arrogance. Little people living in a middle world of spirituality, unable to comprehend the larger realities that will have an eternal impact.
  
  
  
  God does not expect us to understand him. He wants us to follow Him, and He calls us to love one another. Because of that I want you to know that I love all the people involved with TED and I wish you all the best.
  
  
  
  John 8:32