full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Eric Liu: How to revive your belief in democracy
Unscramble the Blue Letters
Perhaps now you're getting a little worried that I'm trying to sell you on a cult. Relax, I'm not. I don't need to sell you. As a human, you are always in the market for a cult, for some variety of religious experience. We are wired to seek cosmological explanations, to sacralize beliefs that unite us in tceneasdrnnt purpose. Humans make religion because humans make groups. The only choice we have is whether to aitavtce that guenrsops for good. If you are a deuovt person, you know this. If you are not, if you no longer go to peyrar services or never did, then perhaps you'll say that yoga is your religion, or Premier League football, or knitting, or coding or TED Talks. But whether you believe in a God or in the absence of gods, civic riligoen does not rueirqe you to renounce your beliefs. It requires you only to show up as a cziiten.
Open Cloze
Perhaps now you're getting a little worried that I'm trying to sell you on a cult. Relax, I'm not. I don't need to sell you. As a human, you are always in the market for a cult, for some variety of religious experience. We are wired to seek cosmological explanations, to sacralize beliefs that unite us in ____________ purpose. Humans make religion because humans make groups. The only choice we have is whether to ________ that _________ for good. If you are a ______ person, you know this. If you are not, if you no longer go to ______ services or never did, then perhaps you'll say that yoga is your religion, or Premier League football, or knitting, or coding or TED Talks. But whether you believe in a God or in the absence of gods, civic ________ does not _______ you to renounce your beliefs. It requires you only to show up as a _______.
Solution
- activate
- groupness
- transcendent
- devout
- require
- prayer
- religion
- citizen
Original Text
Perhaps now you're getting a little worried that I'm trying to sell you on a cult. Relax, I'm not. I don't need to sell you. As a human, you are always in the market for a cult, for some variety of religious experience. We are wired to seek cosmological explanations, to sacralize beliefs that unite us in transcendent purpose. Humans make religion because humans make groups. The only choice we have is whether to activate that groupness for good. If you are a devout person, you know this. If you are not, if you no longer go to prayer services or never did, then perhaps you'll say that yoga is your religion, or Premier League football, or knitting, or coding or TED Talks. But whether you believe in a God or in the absence of gods, civic religion does not require you to renounce your beliefs. It requires you only to show up as a citizen.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
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civic religion |
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civic saturday |
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democracy works |
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civic ritual |
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civic saturdays |
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religion matters |
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ngrams of length 3
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civic religion matters |
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Important Words
- absence
- activate
- beliefs
- choice
- citizen
- civic
- coding
- cosmological
- cult
- devout
- experience
- explanations
- football
- god
- gods
- good
- groupness
- groups
- human
- humans
- knitting
- league
- longer
- market
- person
- prayer
- premier
- purpose
- relax
- religion
- religious
- renounce
- require
- requires
- sacralize
- seek
- sell
- services
- show
- talks
- ted
- transcendent
- unite
- variety
- wired
- worried
- yoga