Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/26/18
12:00 am

Location
Timberland Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

Categories

• Forum
• Member Talks
• Worship Services

5:00 to 5:30 PM

Social time.

5:30 PM Service:

“Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers”, a

TED Talk by Steven Pinker, with discussion after led by Glenn Donnahoe.

Was 2017 really the “worst year ever,” as some would have us believe? In his analysis of recent data on homicide, war, poverty, pollution and more, psychologist Steven Pinker finds that we’re doing better now in every one of these categories when compared with 30 years ago. But progress isn’t inevitable, and it doesn’t mean everything gets better for everyone all the time, Pinker says. Instead, progress is problem-solving, and we should look at things like climate change and nuclear war as problems to be solved, not apocalypses in waiting. “We will never have a perfect world, and it would be dangerous to seek one,” he says. “But there’s no limit to the betterments we can attain if we continue to apply knowledge to enhance human flourishing.”

About the TED Speaker: Steven Pinker – Psychologist; Steven Pinker is a professor of cognitive science (the study of the human mind) who writes about language, mind and human nature.