Raising the level of literacy
October 28, 2007 by Bill
The Honorable Walter Annenberg became my patron in 1990. In his letter of explanation he said he wanted me to be free to write and lecture full time. That was the first of over 200 letters to me in our wonderful and constructive ten year relationship. In that same first letter he told me the most significant reason for his decision. He wrote: “I consider your newspaper columns monumental in raising the level of religious literacy.” He went on to add that this reduces the level of bigotry, superstition, and ignorance.
His use of language in the letter, with the phrase “raising the level of religious literacy”, was very interesting to me for the following reason: Every semester, in my last class with my university students, I would always ask them this question: “what part of this semester made the most significant contribution in raising your level of religious literacy.?”
Without exception, there was always one included. It was the section that brought out the fact that all the rituals and beliefs of present day Christianity and Judaism had their origin in the primitive religions of magic, superstition, ignorance and witchcraft. We studied many examples with a few being obvious to even the most innocent and naive student.
Steven Weinberg
October 21, 2007 by Bill
Dr. Steven Weinberg is one of the true, authentic, Renaissance men of our time.
He has been called the “Einstein” of our day. He won the Nobel Prize for uniting the electro-magnetic and the weak nuclear forces into a single force. He is a founding director of the Jerusalem Winter School of Theoretical Physics; is on the Council of Scholars, the Library of Congress; he holds honorary doctoral degrees from major universities all over the world. He taught at MIT and Harvard. Nobody since Loren Eiseley and Lewis Thomas has written so beautifully turning science into poetry.
He recently was awarded the Lewis Thomas prize, given to the scholar who “best embodies the scientist as poet.”
He prefaced his acceptance speech by saying…”what a joy to be at a meeting that doesn’t start with an invocation.” He went on to say “that the great passion of his life, with science, is to free human beings from the superstition of religion” and he continued:
The Sunday symposium
October 14, 2007 by Bill
The “Edelen Sunday Symposium” is now starting its 14th year at the Palm Springs Tennis Club. 10:00 a.m. We are in the beautiful Bougainvillea Room, all glass with a view to die for. Seating capacity about 400. You have the choice of elevator or stone steps to reach the room. You do not have to be a member of the club to attend. Attendance is a reflection of the population of the entire Coachella Valley. Old and young, straight and gay, male and female, laborer and executive, wealthy and modest incomes…just a marvelous mixture of independent and free thinkers. We have many visitors from Santa Barbara.
A recent editorial in “The Journal of Religious Literacy” described it this way: “Bill Edelen’s Sunday morning Symposium at the Palm Springs, CA Tennis Club is a sign of the future for those for whom the traditional Sunday morning experience is no longer an option.”
A brief history: When the Honorable Walter Annenberg became my patron in 1990 he said he wanted to free me to write and speak full time. My wife and I started our first Sunday Symposium in Oakmont, Santa Rosa, CA. It filled an obvious need for an outlet for those not bound into the mental concentration camps of religious dogma, doctrines, creeds and the debris of archaic and ancient ages. The Symposium flourished. After three years there we were encouraged by Mr. Annenberg to move to Palm Springs and start a similar Symposium He had his winter estate “Sunnylands” here. We did make that move eleven years ago and started the Palm Springs Symposium Even though we left the Santa Rosa Symposium eleven years ago it has never faltered and is still going strong to this day. I cannot tell you how that warms my heart and fills it with joy.
