--- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
snip > As a nonreligionist whose assumptions don't > jibe with those of either of these guys, I don't > think Harris knows as much as he thinks he does > about the scriptural texts and religious > perspectives he's dumping on, so in many cases > he's attacking his own straw men. > > Maybe Harris's most stubborn assumption is that > if science is valid, then religion isn't. He > insists on judging religion by the standards of > science, which really makes no sense. Sullivan, > on the other hand, assumes that one doesn't > somehow negate the other, which seems to me a > much more reasonable position. > > Or to put it another way, Harris is threatened > by religion, but Sullivan isn't threatened by > science. > > > *Both*, IMO, are so attached to their assumptions > > that they cannot possibly challenge them. > > Thing is, only if Harris's assumption about science > negating religion is correct should Sullivan *need* > to challenge his own. Sullivan isn't trying to > negate science. So it isn't symmetrical. So do you believe thunder happens when a guy named Zeus who lives on top of a mountain in Greece gets mad at someone on earth and tries to zap him? No? How about the entire universe being created 4,000 years ago in 6 days by a guy in sky named Yahweh? Did science negate these religious truths for you? How dare science intrued on this private sacred aspect of human life. Scientists must be feeling really threatened by Zeus and Yahweh to do such a thing. Honestly, I sense Harris is too much of a materialist for me and good scientist doesn't have to mean materialist, but I think this world is long overdue for a serious reassessment of the inane religious beliefs that have plagued human history and still dominant human thinking. "With or without it <religion>, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." -- Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." -- Pascal
