Cogent. Love this bit: With Harris, we are confronted with a completely different issue, which is the idea that anyone can simply become a recognized expert in religion simply by spouting these overly simplistic criticisms of it. Sam Harris, to me, gives atheism a bad name because he comes from a tradition of atheism that is really disconnected from the titans of intellectual, philosophical atheism who gave birth to the modern world. These were experts in religion who, from a position of expertise, criticized religion. Sam Harris is a neuroscientist; he knows as much about religion as I do about neuroscience. The difference is that I don’t go around writing books about neuroscience. To be clear: I am critical of all organized religion, particularly the Abrahamic faiths. But the anti-Islam cadence tends toward hateful and often extremely racist/colonialist rhetoric. salon/2014/10/10/exclusive_reza_aslan_on_bill_mahers_anti_islam_crusade_frank_bigotry/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 05:22:05 +0000