Closer to Truth on PBS
I am in New York this week filming with Dr. Robert L. Kuhn who hosts the award winning PBS television series “Closer to Truth.” This unique and innovative program approaches “science, religion, meaning, and the future” in a series of in-depth interviews and round-table discussions with the world’s leadings philosophers and scientists. The list of topics covered over three seasons is as broad as it is fascinating. A small selective sample:
What is Consciousness?
When and How Did the Universe Begin?
Can We Imagine the Far Future?
Can We Believe both Science and Religion?
How Does Order Arise in the Cosmos?
The programs produced so far are being archived on the Web site and have been published in two fascinating volumes, Closer to Truth: Challenging Current Beliefs, and Closer to Truth: Science, Meaning, and the Future. The Web site also contains a wealth of archived source material.
I have known Robert Kuhn for nearly 40 years and his many faceted accomplishments are legion. He has a Ph.D. in Brain Research from UCLA, as well as an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School. He produced the PBS documentary “In Search of China” and wrote the best-selling biography of Jiang Zemin, The Man Who Changed China. Whether operating in the business world or in the world of science Kuhn has a passionate and incessant drive to examine the underlying assumptions of our belief systems.
The next three seasons of “Closer to Truth” are focusing on the questions of Cosmos, Consciousness, and God, and Kuhn has completed interviews with over 100 of the top thinkers in all the fields of science and philosophy related to these areas. His ambitious mapping of programs includes 26 half-hour episodes on each topic over three years. Since his approach has been theoretical and philosophical, rather than historical, he recently contacted me to tape a dozen segments on a variety of topics that would bring the “history of ideas” into the picture, particularly how the three Abrahamic Faiths, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, have dealt with some of these “big questions,” and more particularly, what the biblical texts contribute to the discussion. In fact, as it turned out, our sessions today were the last of many grueling months of travel, interviews, and taping.
Kuhn is a person who is always looking ahead so we have been talking this week about where he wants to go beyond the latest series, now just in the editing stages. I have suggested to him that he consider a new series that would adopt and adapt his same probing interview format to questions related to the history of ideas, and more particularly the history of religions, including “science and the Bible.” This would allow the public a glimpse into the results of a historical-critical reading of scriptures, and the contributions of anthropology/archaeology and sociology to our understanding of the development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.