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May 26, 2007
Chris Hedges on Sam Harris
by Jesus Politics
The rise of religious fundamentalism has prompted a growing number of people to adopt an anti-religious attitude. Christian friendly Chris Hedges recently debated the anti-religious Sam Harris.
A couple of quick quotes from Hedges' opening statement at the debate with Sam Harris:
The danger of Sam's simplistic worldview is that it does what fundamentalists do: It creates the illusion of a binary world of us and them, of reason versus irrationality, of the forces of light battling the forces of darkness. And once you set up this world you are permitted to view as justified military intervention, brutal occupation and even torture, anything, in short, that will subdue what is defined as irrational and dangerous. All this is done in the name of reason, in the name of his god, which looks, like all idols, an awful lot like Sam Harris. [ ]
The point of religion, authentic religion, is that it is not, in the end, about us. It is about the other, about the stranger lying beaten and robbed on the side of the road, about the poor, the outcasts, the marginalized, the sick, the destitute, about those who are being abused and beaten in cells in Guantanamo and a host of other secret locations, about what we do to gays and lesbians in this country, what we do to the 47 million Americans without health insurance, the illegal immigrants who live among us without rights or protection, their suffering as invisible as the suffering of the mentally ill we have relegated to heating grates or prison cells. It is about them.
We have forgotten who we were meant to be, who we were created to be, because we have forgotten that we find God not in ourselves, finally, but in our care for our neighbor, in the stranger, including those outside the nation and the faith. The religious life is not designed to make you happy, or safe or content; it is not designed to make you whole or complete, to free you from anxieties and fear; it is designed to save you from yourself, to make possible human community, to lead you to understand that the greatest force in life is not power or reason but love.
Posted by Jesus Politics at May 26, 2007 04:57 AM
Comments
Indeed, it is the black and white nature of Harris' critique (and that of other similar critiques) that is so off-putting. The idea that simply because I believe in God I give cover to the Fundamentalist is simply silly. As you read Harris you find him winking at the Fundamentalist and saying you and I both know who is really a believer! Not so!
Posted by: Bob Cornwall at May 26, 2007 06:44 PM
Muslim terrorists think they are normal because almost everyone else also believes in God, so all God believers indirectly support terrorism.
I'm convinced the world would be a better place if more people had an anti-religious attitude. After 9/11 it should be disgraceful to be religious and in my opinion it is disgraceful. What is God good for in the 21st Century anyway? Modern science has almost completely eliminated any need for a magic man in the sky.
Posted by: Mike A. at May 28, 2007 06:49 AM
Hi Mike:
The problem isn't God-belief. It's the belief that your cause is so important that killing is a justified way to promote it. Unless you are a pacifist then you share that belief with the Bin Ladens of the world, and it is exactly that particular belief that leads to killing as a way to promote the good. Millions of people have been killed in human history because of the superstition that we humans are competent to decide when it's OK to kill someone.
There is nothing about science at all that "eliminates" the need for God. Science being able to describe the natural processes that result in the stuff of nature doesn't even get to where those natural processes came from, to who created and sustains those natural processes. And more importantly ,science can't even address the deeper questions of meaning and purpose. The idea that God-belief is a superstition that science can "cure" is just a competing faith claim, not an objective scientific fact.
your friend
Keith
Posted by: keith johnson at May 29, 2007 04:23 AM
Chris Hedges is "Christian friendly"? Really? Having read some of his "stuff" I don't find that to be the case. Hedges is another form of unbeliever. Since Hedges rejects most of what the Bible says, by his own admission, he has more in common with Sam Harris than with genuine Christians.
Posted by: Gary at May 30, 2007 05:53 PM
Let us not forget that aethism killed 67 million in Russia when the Communist took over and 40+million in China when the aethist took over.
Historically, the greatest threat is aethism that needs to be part of the debate.
Posted by: Dove at June 1, 2007 03:33 PM
Hi Dove:
I don't agree that it's atheism either. The Russian Communists were atheists alright, but that wasn't the only idea they embraced. It was the idea that it's OK to kill people for a good cause that explains the millions they murdered. The capitalist west murdered our share too, but supporting anti-communist brutal governments during the Cold War. The allies murdered millions in WW I and II by engaging in total war for the cause. We killed thousands in Iran by supporting Iraq, thousands more in Gulf Wars I and II. Attheist, theist, it doesn't seem to matter. All share the same ideology of using killing to promote a "good" cause.
your friend
Keith
Posted by: keith johnson at June 3, 2007 03:35 AM
I think that you demonize Sam here. Sam is just an innocent questioner, someone who wants to improve things by having people debate and reason things. Religion is a dinosaur in need of repair.
Posted by: J. McAndrew at May 18, 2008 03:41 AM
