{"id":3549,"date":"2011-03-07T11:28:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-07T11:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/03\/sam-harris-debunked-phase-ii.html"},"modified":"2011-03-07T11:28:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-07T11:28:00","slug":"sam-harris-debunked-phase-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/03\/sam-harris-debunked-phase-ii.html","title":{"rendered":"Sam Harris debunked, phase II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Brian Green, over at The MoralMindField<\/a>, continues to dissect Harris\u2019 latest attempts to establish some rationale for a post-religious world.\u00a0 As his previous attempt<\/a> showed, this is no off-the-cuff dig at Harris.\u00a0 It is a methodical unpacking of where Harris gets it right, and where he gets it wrong.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

It should be no surprise to anyone of faith that, where Harris gets it most wrong, is understanding religion and religious faith.\u00a0 This, alas, is a hallmark of the \u2018New Atheist\u2019 movement.\u00a0 Unlike their forebears, folks like Voltaire or Hume, they just don\u2019t get it.\u00a0 In the infancy years of modern Western secular thought, many \u2013 like those mentioned \u2013 went after religion with a vengeance, but with some knowledge of the facts in question.\u00a0 Whether the institutional church specifically, or religious thought in general, they hacked and slashed without mercy.\u00a0 Sometimes, they were right.\u00a0 But in most cases, they at least knew what they were talking about.\u00a0 They understood the religion and religious life that they were attacking.<\/p>\n

Today, when one listens to or reads Harris, or Christopher Hitchens, or P.Z. Myers, or \u2013 I know \u2013 Bill Maher, it\u2019s clear they don\u2019t understand religion at all.\u00a0 They don\u2019t get it.\u00a0 They don\u2019t understand it.\u00a0 They get things wrong.\u00a0\u00a0They miss actual facts about this religious belief or that religious practice.\u00a0 Brian points to several cases in Church practice (regarding excommunication) and biblical exegesis (regarding Jesus teaching on hypocrisy) to expose Harris\u2019s attempted \u2018square peg in round hole\u2019 end run around the facts.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

No doubt such prolamations as the Church could have excommunicated Hitler but didn\u2019t, or that Jesus taught about advocating the killing of children for talking back, appeals to the choir to which Harris preaches.\u00a0 But as Brian points out in his summation of Harris\u2019s laughably inept grasp at religious facts: <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to what end [does Harris use a non-standard biblical interpretation]?\u201d we might ask. We should already know\u2026 to make religions (particularly Christianity), which possess competing worldviews and moral systems, look bad, so that Harris can jump in and can replace them. Harris is spouting political rhetoric, \u201cpersuasion\u201d in his words (50), not philosophy or science.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To what end indeed.\u00a0 Again, the great modern guardians of reason and truth essentially reduce themselves to pseudo-pundits, using half truths, non-truths, and emotional appeals to get the knee jerk reactions their dead end theories are incapable of arousing.\u00a0 That\u2019s what comes of trying to build a worldview on obvious falsehoods.\u00a0 Even the most passionate disciple will start to scratch his head, unless you toss a few scraps of meat to keep him interested.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brian Green, over at The MoralMindField, continues to dissect Harris\u2019 latest attempts to establish some rationale for a post-religious world.\u00a0 As his previous attempt showed, this is no off-the-cuff dig at Harris.\u00a0 It is a methodical unpacking of where Harris gets it right, and where he gets it wrong.\u00a0 It should be no surprise to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSam Harris debunked, phase II<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brian Green, over at The MoralMindField, continues to dissect Harris' latest attempts to establish some rationale for a post-religious world.  As his\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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