I watched this special on PBS this weekend that my mom taped for me. It was called The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life. I think I’m going to buy the DVD sometime. Here’s the site.

I can’t really summarize everything that was talked about, but the main part that stuck out for me was the discussion on death. Freud was spiritual but not religious in the least. Many expected him to cave to religion and ask god or some equivalent for help. He never did…he just laid there and died, holding firm to his stance. The discussion group in the show talked about the decision facing Freud near the end. If he refused to acknowledge god, in terms of the christian faith, he was basically going to hell if he were wrong and there was a god. The christians in the group noted that they didn’t believe in a firey hell, but rather, it would just be a place absent of god.

I’m not looking to start a debate as to whether god exists or not, but the topic of the show…how our belief in god changes our meaning of life is quite intriguing and worth thinking about. If you get a chance, there are video clips of segments on the website. I’m very tempted to pick up another Freud book to read as well. He’s on my list of dead people that I would bring back to meet. I want to read Civilization and Its Discontents. Freud mentioned something funny about civilization…in his opinion, “civilization was created the first day a man threw out a curse word instead of a spear”. Moses and Monotheism also looks really great. I read about 100 pages of the interpretation of dreams, and I loved it but it’s slow reading.

Sorry for the choppy post. I was trying to keep myself from talking forever. I could write a 15 page paper about this show. It was fascinating.