Reflections at the Nexus: Science, Religion and Development [video]
SummaryText
“Reflections at the Nexus: Science, Religion and Development" is a video documentary inspired by two things: the recent discourse on science, religion, and development (SRD) on the one hand, and the unparalleled exemplification of that discourse by a host of agents and agencies working in India to advance the condition of the sub-continent's masses. They took as their point of departure a concept paper prepared by the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity (ISGP) for a (then) forthcoming colloquium on SRD in Delhi. The thrust of the Institute's thesis is captured in its closing paragraph:
“If the capacities of the world's peoples are to reach the levels needed to address the complex requirements of the present hour, the resources of both reason and faith will have to be tapped. Development initiatives will not lead to tangible and lasting improvements in physical well-being without drawing on those universal spiritual postulates that give direction and meaning to life. While science can offer the methods and tools for promoting social and economic advancement, it alone cannot set direction; the goal of development cannot come from within the process itself. A vision is needed, and the proper vision will never take shape if the spiritual heritage of the human race continues to be regarded as tangential to development policy and programs.”
Fact or fiction?
They decided to put the question, with its myriad implications for social and economic action, to a cross section of India's civil society - the women and men at the vanguard of development practise and thinking. They visited people, places, projects - from as wide a gamut of endeavour and geography as possible - and spoke to the protagonists about their work and about the crises and victories of India's development over the last five decades.
“Reflections at the Nexus: Science, Religion and Development" presents the voices of a diversity of India's development actors and thinkers as they address the major issues of development in India today and as they engage with the implications of the SRD discourse: what, if anything, does development look like at the nexus of our scientific and religious knowledge systems? More about sub-dermal questions than smug answers, the video is particularly successful as an appetiser to what is becoming an essential discussion in the development field.
“If the capacities of the world's peoples are to reach the levels needed to address the complex requirements of the present hour, the resources of both reason and faith will have to be tapped. Development initiatives will not lead to tangible and lasting improvements in physical well-being without drawing on those universal spiritual postulates that give direction and meaning to life. While science can offer the methods and tools for promoting social and economic advancement, it alone cannot set direction; the goal of development cannot come from within the process itself. A vision is needed, and the proper vision will never take shape if the spiritual heritage of the human race continues to be regarded as tangential to development policy and programs.”
Fact or fiction?
They decided to put the question, with its myriad implications for social and economic action, to a cross section of India's civil society - the women and men at the vanguard of development practise and thinking. They visited people, places, projects - from as wide a gamut of endeavour and geography as possible - and spoke to the protagonists about their work and about the crises and victories of India's development over the last five decades.
“Reflections at the Nexus: Science, Religion and Development" presents the voices of a diversity of India's development actors and thinkers as they address the major issues of development in India today and as they engage with the implications of the SRD discourse: what, if anything, does development look like at the nexus of our scientific and religious knowledge systems? More about sub-dermal questions than smug answers, the video is particularly successful as an appetiser to what is becoming an essential discussion in the development field.
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