Refuting Sam Harris

[billydkid]

I haven't really looked into it. I'm sure there have been a number of negative critiques of Sam Harris' book The End of Faith. Andrew Sullivan, for example, claims to have successfully refuted Harris' argument. Now, leaving aside the horsecrap later in the book about meditation and eastern religions, I frankly do not see how it is legitimately possible to refute his basic positions about the inherent untruth and dangers of "faith" in any non-rational belief system. The arguments stack one on top of the other to form an logically unassailable whole. I can only think the people who claim to refute the book simply ignor the difficult arguments. I simply can not think of a single rational, logical argument which supports religion as truth.

 

[Bikewer]

Religions are sociocultural institutions which, over the years, have evolved various useful practices and such. However, I'd maintain that all of them are built on myth and superstition, and no theology holds up to scrutiny.

Some wag once noted that if you stripped away the supernatural elements of most Christian sects, you'd be left with secular humanism....

 

[ImaginalDisc]

Religions are sociocultural institutions which, over the years, have evolved various useful practices and such. However, I'd maintain that all of them are built on myth and superstition, and no theology holds up to scrutiny.

Some wag once noted that if you stripped away the supernatural elements of most Christian sects, you'd be left with secular humanism....

I'm sorry, could you explain how forbidding people from marrying other people of the same sex, lying about the beliefs of the Founding Fathers and trying to pass laws that aim to prevent their neighbors from playing violent video games constitutes secular humanism? I don't follow.

 

[l0rca]

I'm sorry, could you explain how forbidding people from marrying other people of the same sex, lying about the beliefs of the Founding Fathers and trying to pass laws that aim to prevent their neighbors from playing violent video games constitutes secular humanism? I don't follow.

I'll add preventing stem-cell research, the jihad, the Irish Protestant/Catholic wars, and unethical condom endorsement in Africa to that list.

 

[ImaginalDisc]

I'll add preventing stem-cell research, the jihad, the Irish Protestant/Catholic wars, and unethical condom endorsement in Africa to that list.

Don't you mean "unethical condom decrying?"

 

[l0rca]

Yup. Whoops.