Believers And Doubters

TED Radio Hour

NPR

Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Science, Technology

4.4 • 21.3K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2019

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why do some of us believe, and some of us don't? And can doubt bring our beliefs into sharper focus? In this hour, TED speakers, from ardent aetheists to the devout, explore all ends of the spectrum. In a brand new interview, minister Greg Tonkinson describes how he had to reckon with doubt when his faith was shaken to its core. Other guests from the original 2013 episode include actor Julia Sweeney, and writers Lesley Hazelton, Alain de Botton, and Devdutt Pattanaik.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's Guy here. So today's show is all about why some people believe in a power higher than
0:05.2	themselves and others don't. This episode first aired in November of 2013, but this time around,
0:12.0	we've included a brand new interview with Greg Tonkinson. He's an ordained minister whose faith
0:17.1	was tested in a way few of us could ever imagine. This is the Ted Radio Hour.
0:26.4	Each week, groundbreaking Ted Talks. Ted. Ted. Technology. Entertainment. Design. Design.
0:34.7	Is that really what's 10 for us? I've never known that. Delivered at Ted conferences around the
0:39.1	world. It's a gift of the human imagination. We've had to believe in impossible things.
0:43.6	The true nature of reality beckons from just beyond. Those talks, those ideas, adapted for radio.
0:51.8	From NPR. I'm Guy Ross. So a lot of us have some sort of plan we're following. A vision,
1:04.2	a path we've set out for our lives. But for some people, it's more than that. It's the path
1:11.5	that God has laid out. Exactly. The faith is trust. I just assume that this was God's path for me.
1:20.5	This is Greg Tonkinson. His path became clear to him in 1986 when he was a student at Arizona
1:28.1	State University. He decided to dedicate his life to his faith. When I did that, I just
1:35.7	no angels, no trumpets, but I knew that God had gotten a hold of my life. I went to
1:42.6	Phoenix Seminary and began taking classes. I really fell in love with the academic side,
1:48.8	the thinking side of the Christian faith. A few years later, when Greg met his wife, Leanne,
1:56.0	he thought that was part of the plan too. Yeah, we met at church. I was teaching our college
2:03.4	ministry and in walk this beautiful woman and I just thought, well, I'd love to get to know her.
2:11.4	So we decided to go out on a date, dated for two years, and we got married in 1996.
2:21.2	And Greg and Leanne built a life for themselves based on this plan. She started working at Phoenix
2:27.5	Children's Hospital in 1997 and then I planted a church in 1998. So our journey was definitely
2:35.9	embedded in again a solid faith. We both knew we wanted to pursue a Christian marriage,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.