Sam Harris - Misconceptions About Atheism

[Ken Morgan]

It's Saturday and I have tonnes of work I could be doing, but it's been much too long since we got into a good religious/atheist discussion here. I always enjoy and learn much from the discussions.

Here's an older clip from Sam Harris, one of the "four horsemen". Some good points that I believe many religious people should consider...

 

[Ramirez]

Good point on facism and communism being more like religion than atheism.

 

[Blade96]

Good point on facism and communism being more like religion than atheism.

I was going to say that too. and where he said the problem with them wasnt because of any 'atheism'

also i liked the part where he said atheists can be 'spiritual' beings and can still see a possibility of life on other planets and things like that. You can be spiritual but not religious.

 

[Carol]

He makes some interesting points.

However, I take issue with a couple of things that he is trying to say.

I don't at all like how he and other (not all) atheists issue a pandemic dismissal of religious people as not being critical thinkers or scientific. Here in New England as an exampe, there are scores of non-Catholic parents trying to get their children in to Catholic schools because the education is more rigorous and the children earn better life skills. Boston College has some of the best programs in the country for majors such as law and the hard sciences, yet the school began, and is still run, by the Jesuits. My former husband earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry from BC, I hardly think he would have survived freshman year as an undergrad had he said "But...but....but...the Bible says earth is only 4000 years old!"

It is not a person's label that matters, it is their character. To say the evils of Pol Pot and the like were because they were from an environment that was "like religion" only tells about half of the story. The other half is the lack of quality education and the lack of analytical skills.

Just my thoughts anyway

 

[Ramirez]

He makes some interesting points.

However, I take issue with a couple of things that he is trying to say.

I don't at all like how he and other (not all) atheists issue a pandemic dismissal of religious people as not being critical thinkers or scientific. Here in New England as an exampe, there are scores of non-Catholic parents trying to get their children in to Catholic schools because the education is more rigorous and the children earn better life skills. Boston College has some of the best programs in the country for majors such as law and the hard sciences, yet the school began, and is still run, by the Jesuits. My former husband earned his PhD in Physical Chemistry from BC, I hardly think he would have survived freshman year as an undergrad had he said "But...but....but...the Bible says earth is only 4000 years old!"

It is not a person's label that matters, it is their character. To say the evils of Pol Pot and the like were because they were from an environment that was "like religion" only tells about half of the story. The other half is the lack of quality education and the lack of analytical skills.

Just my thoughts anyway

good point, the Catholic Church at least has come a long way in its acceptance of scientific principles, and in fact has provided excellent education in the physical sciences. I would say the same for a lot of protestant denominations, they have managed to accomodate things like cosmology and evolution.


There are also scientists like Kenneth Miller who are Christians.