dr. john simmons, and as always, we have a scintillating session in plan for you today. we're about midway through the course and we're in one of those transition periods in beliefs and believers. we're moving out of doctrine - well, moving into doctrine, but out of myth and ritual. and we never want to think that we're going to forget the other dimension, so let's keep those in mind - the experiential dimension, the mythic dimension, and the ritual dimension. of course, i'm sort of like kid in the candy store with

dr. john simmons, and as happens, we are moving into another dimension, the ethical dimension. and in many ways, when we speak of ethics, it cuts to the core of this course, as you probably know by now, because we're talking about behavior. what people believe- well, we've seen many, many different examples of it. but how they behave- proper patterns of action- that's what we want to look at as we move through this very, very important dimension, because you know, believing,

dr. john simmons, and we're continuing on our journey to try to understand the relationship between mythther fascinating class. we're going to be looking at what we call in the field primal religions, which includes the religions of the indigenous peoples of the world in africa, america, indonesia, the amazonian basin, and we want to turn to them

dr. john simmons and we've got another great class here on islam- we're going to be asking another world religion to help us understand the doctrinal dimension. but we're having so much fun and we've had such an interesting set of classes that i'd ju like throw it out- whatever "it" is- once again to this great audience, and any observations you've had since we last met that bring up some of our key class themes- we're always getting some interesting comments here. yeah, virginia? >> i wasn't going to say anything this week. however- >> why not?

dr. john simmons, and as always, we have a scintillating session in plan for you today. those transition periods in beliefs and believers. we're moving out of doctrine - well, moving into doctrine, but out of myth and ritual. and we never want to think that we're going to forget the other dimension, so let's keep those in mind - the experiential dimension, the mythic dimension, and the ritual dimension. of course, i'm sort of like

dr. john simmons and we are moving on through the semester here, thoroughly ensconced in the doctrinal dimensionon't we start out with something fun here- a joke. anybody have a joke? a joke? yeah, go ahead. >> it's a george carlin- the comedian- it's his joke. someone in the audience asked him did he believe in the ten commandments. he said, 'yes, i do believe

dr. john simmons and we are moving on through the semester here, thoroughly ensconced in the doctrinal dimension. but since doctrine sometimes can be a tough road to hoe, why don't we start out with something fun here- a joke. anybody have a joke? a joke? yeah, go ahead. >> it's a george carlin- the comedian- it's his joke. someone in the audience asked him did he believe in the ten commandments. he said, 'yes, i do believe in the commandments- six commandments and four suggestions." >> that's a good one with doctrine, because when we're talking about doctrine, as you know, and ethics, we're at the very heart of the course, which is belief and behavior. and we've mentioned several functions of doctrine, and today i want to take another spin on that and look at the tension in the doctrinal dimension between the sacred and the secular. so often the deeply religious have a problem with the secular world, and for others, like us, it's difficult to see where that demarcation is, that line between what is the mundane, what's the ordinary, and what is special and what is sacred. and we've talked about

dr. john simmons and we've got another great class here on islam- we're going to be asking another world religion to help us understand the doctrinal dimension. but we're having so much fun and we've had such an interesting set of classes that i'd ju like throw it out- whatever "it" is- once again to this great audience, and any observations you've had since we last met that bring up some of our key class themes- we're always getting some interesting comments here. yeah, virginia? >> i wasn't going to say anything this week. however- >> why not? >> i've found that- i opened new yorker, and here are political cartoons on our meditation- one thing, it says, "our journey." you know, he says, "have we arrived yet?"- these little children sitting there in meditative poses. and when we were talking about the dome of the rock, there's a spread in the magazine about that. everything seems so current now. >> you begin to see these things once you- it reminds me of my geology class. you know, i took geology to get through my general ed, and just taking that course, it helps me see more in the natu

dr. john simmons and we are moving on through the semester here, thoroughly ensconced in the doctrinal dimension. but since doctrine sometimes can be a tough road to hoe, why don't we start out with something fun here- a joke. anybody have a joke? a joke? yeah, go ahead. >> it's a george carlin- the comedian- it's his joke. someone in the audience asked him did he believe in the ten commandments. he said, 'yes, i do believe in the commandments-

dr. john simmons, and we're continuing on our journey to try to understand the relationship between myth and ritual. today, as always, we've got another fascinating class. we're going to be looking at what we call in the field primal religions, which includes the religions of the indigenous peoples of the world in africa, america, indonesia, the amazonian basin, and we want to turn to them because it's in that world that myth and ritual really come alive and are really lived, and so it's a good chance for us to test out our dimensions. now we have a native america

dr. john simmons, and we've been enjoying a delightful conversation about myth - the power of myth, the excitement of it - and while we're going to be asking judaism to help us further understand the mythic dimension today, i don't want to cut the conversation short, and we certainly did in the last class - we were down to the wire. so any comments or observations you might have? and again, we like to apply the things that we've seen