Athens and Jerusalem (in Education)

In this episode we have a visit from Rebecca Teclemariam. She has worked for more than 30 years in education as an educator, teacher, teacher educator and administrator. We are particularly curious about how she connects mathematics and ethics. She attempts to show how essential values ​​for humans can be shown mathematically. An example is to create a mathematical model that shows the relationshi...

In this episode we start by discussing the development of philosophy. Or rather, our thesis is that there has actually been no particular development of philosophy. Rather, it seems as if there have perhaps been some degenerate thoughts within Western philosophy over the past 2500 years. Furthermore, we examine the idea of ​​which rationality actually motivates action. Why is it that scientific kn...

In this episode, we talk about the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. We have with us an expert on his philosophy, Professor Roe Fremstedal at NTNU, Norway. He presents his interpretation of Kierkegaard as an ethical thinker. We start from the distinction between knowledge and faith. A central point is that when it comes to faith, we cannot be certain. While when it comes to knowledge, we can h...

In this episode we talk about Hitler's philosophers and the book: Nils Gilje (2026). Hitlers filosofer - nasjonalsosialisme, filosofi og religion i mellomkrigstidens Tyskland.  Solum Bokvennen. There are three philosophers in particular which the podcast is based on. These are Martin Heidegger, Alfred Baeumler and Ernst Krieck. All three cultivated academic freedom and had developed a philosophy t...

In this episode, we ask whether AI can have a religious function. Can AI synthesize all religions into one religion, or can AI itself become the new religious authority in the world? These are just two of the questions we address. We also touch on the relationship between religion and ethics and what humans really need to be moral, and what about AI. Will it be possible for something artificial to...

In this episode, we examine the phenomenon prophets. Much of the discussion is about understanding what a prophet is. We also touch on the question of whether there are modern prophets. After listening to our own conversation, we wonder if the prophets really have anything to say about their own position, or it is the followers who determine their status? There are no definitive answers here, but...

This episode is about revelation. Is it only some who can reveal the truth about the divinity of the world, or is this something everyone can recognize if we open ourselves to such demention of life? How can we know this and how can we express what we know? These are some of the questions we address in this episode as an introduction to talking about prophets in the next episode.

In this episode we explore the possibility of using AI as a moral helper or even agent. Our guest on the episode is Varqa Abyaneh. The fundamental question is whether AI can make better moral choices than humans and not least whether they can practice these choices in a better way than humans can. This applies both to individuals and to what is morally best for the community. We present many impor...

This episode is dedicated to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. He was a French Jesuit, Catholic priest, scientist, paleontologist, philosopher, mystic, and teacher. The church refused to let him publish his works while he was alive, but they were published after his death. His works are unfortunately not that well known, but he has had a great influence both in art and science.

In this episode we try to bridge creation and the big bang with Brian Cranley. We get insight in his book The call of wonder, his inspiration and how he structured a book bridging the belief in a monetheisitc God, philosophical argumentation and natural science. One of the main dilemma is how to connect this notion of a God with a religous thought system and the how this phenomena is presented tro...

In this episode, we discuss different ways to argue about the relationship between religion and science. The most typical approach is to use religious premises to prove scientific facts or to use scientific premises to prove religious beliefs. Steven argues for a more circular form of argumentation, unfolding axioms that must serve as both the conclusion and the premise. A fourth way of arguing co...

In this episode, Natia Natsvlishvili is visiting our podcast and we discuss how spirituality motivates our actions. An important question is what we mean by spirituality. We also touch upon the difference between animals and humans, understanding that animals also have a spirituality. On this topic, the four of us don't agree on human superiority, but there must be some kind of abilities in human...

In this episode we discuss AI. What is the future of existence related to AI, what is the difference between humanity and AI and is it possible to bring ethical values into the algorithms of AI?

In this episode Kamran and I discussed the universe within human being. What are we searching if we wants to know oneself? What is the essence of human existence and what and how could a curriculum and the fostering generation unfold these essences to the next generation?

In this episode we start discussing Spinoza's thoughts on God, universe and the human existence. In the end we discuss what kind of abilities human being have that should be unfold in school. Maybe there is a connection between Spinoza's philosophy of human being as part of the eternal universe, and to try to raise children based on the nature God has given us, that school could be a space where c...

In this episode we explore the phenomenon of praying. What does it really mean to pray and what is the meaning of this kind of activity. We also touches upon love and the courage to risk loving someone or something in the world and what kind of dimention of hope this receivingness of inner lust could bring into existence. 

In this episode we discuss the holy. Our starting point is Mircea Eliade and Rudolf Otto. The German theologian and philosopher Rudolf Otto in his influential 1917 German book The Idea of the Holy gives us the term numinous, meaning "arousing spiritual or religious emotion; mysterious or awe-inspiring" also "supernatural" or "appealing to the aesthetic sensibility." Eliade, a historian of religion...

In this episode we discuss the relation between faith and everyday life. How does faith motivate our action, or is our action the expression of our faith?

In this episode we discuss Leo Strauss' lecture on Athens and Jerusalem. This is the first out of three lectures, delivered in the fall of 1950, investigate the agreement, disagreement, and conflict between the biblical and the philosophic “ways of life”: “Philosophy in the full sense is [...] incompatible with the biblical way of life. Philosophy and the Bible are the alternatives or the antagoni...

In this episode we discuss a youtube video of Richard Dawkins and Jordan Peterson. Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist known for being an atheist. Peterson is a Canadian psychologist known for his psycological perspective on religious belief. Our starting point is the similarities and differences between Dawkins' concept of meme and Peterson's concept of archetype. The link to the video: h...

In this episode we discuss the catholic encyclical letter "Fides et Ratio" written in 1998. This was the first encyclical since Pope Leo XIII's 1879 Aetern Patris to address the relationship between faith and reason. We recommend to read the letter, we only interpret some of the issues been highlighted in the letter. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc...

In this episode we have a jam session discussing truth. You may have heard some of the tunes or stanzas before, but not in this rhythm and order.

In this episode we elaborate on some of the ground questions of being a human being. What are we and were are we coming from and what if we are not coming from anything, would that mean that we have always existed and will always exist. Such cosmological questions often unfolds when death becomes part of life. Life understood as a small universe starting with a bang when conceived and ending with...

In this episode, we elaborate the relationship between human and divinity. In the beginning of the episode, we believe we need some kind of understanding of what divinity is and what human is. But we end up, thinking that maybe the relationship can be experienced just by raising an awareness towards such a relationship. Underneath this discussion is a search for a common universal narrative of the...

In this episode we discuss if history has a course or not and if this course are of progress or decline. We further discuss what possibility human existence has to develop a good society. Could such a society be based on facts or do we need a narrative based on faith? Underneath these discussions are the question of what is human being and what kind of potential do human have to actualize our fait...