A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching a talk by Slavoj Žižek. He’s kind of like the Werner Herzog of continental philosophy (a Laconian to be exact) and also happens to be a professor at the Institute for Sociology, Ljubljana, and at the European Graduate School.

Zizek gave his talk at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. It’s this shindig where academics and clergy from all faiths and countries get together to discuss things like God, the meaning of life, and not the internet. The event is huge.

Anywaysm Zizek was part of a “wild card session” where the topic was “The Death of God: A Continuing Currency?” Some of the ground that Zizek covered was how God’s greater plan has nothing to do with the world being an unfair and unjust place. Rather, it’s just that the universe is imperfect and full of bulls**t, so we have to all work together to deal with it (which ties in nicely with his own brand of Marxism). He explored concepts like how when Jesus died on the cross, it was like God committed suicide, and even posited his own, hilarious interpretation of the book of Job.

The clip is a long one (35 min), but if you have a short attention span, fast-forward to the last 5 minutes. His conclusion is succinct, humorous, and generally charming.

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