I was watching Bill Maher last night and he had Sam Harris, the founder of The Reason Project, on. Bill Maher apparently sits on the advisory board for this organization.
Mr. Harris and his organization supports an open direct dialogue regarding religious dogma using science and secular arguments to dispel the irrational notion of God and to explore trans formative events using the same.
I found the concept that we are engaged in a war of ideas to be very intriguing. I recently watched a video production with Richard Dawkins in which he said we need to confront the nonsensical ideas of astrology, mysticism, holistic medicine, and religion because they are retarding the growth of the species. In the above clip Sam Harris discusses a similar notion.
I would imagine, with most of my religious friends, actively confronting their beliefs would make me an unpopular guest. However, I do believe when someone uses religion as a justification for poor behavior or bad public policy it is fair game to 'prosecute the war of ideas'.
The Reason Project did have some tools on their web page that I found useful and somewhat exciting. The one that has the most use to me is "The Scripture Project" which has annotated versions of the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Qur’an. I started reading the Book of Mormon recently and I found some of the annotations made here were similar to the things I had noted myself.
I found his closing comment to be particularly intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI confess to being a theist, and therefore I acknowledge my biases (some I am aware of and many I am not). My concern when he talks about "a war of ideas" is that we are just exchanging one side of fiery rhetoric for another. Traveling in "Focus on the Family" circles, I hear lots about culture wars and wars of worldview... and it exausts me. I think I understand Harris's point, but I still feel he mistakes symptom for cause. If religion died tomorrow, I believe we would still deal with the same level of human created pain and suffering because we will not have dealt with the fact that we do not know how to humbly speak to one another. The moment someone shares a different opinion of music, art, politics, sociology, etc... there often rises up varying levels of distaste or disdain for the other. Religion is a large vehicle for this, but not the cause.
I do agree with Harris's last statement that religion can prevent us from digging deep into causes because religion often gives quick and trite answers (my interpretation of his words).
Andrew I agree with your premise that we do not know how to humbly speak to one another. I do believe (and I find myself doing this often) we like to state our opinions as universal fact.
ReplyDeleteThe "war of ideas" is not usually prosecuted because religion has been given a pass and seems to be artificially protected from critical discourse. There is an arrogance that prevents open discussion. While this is largely a human trait....religion benefits from this trait, in my opinion, more than atheism.
All of that aside...I am not out to change my friends and family. However in the public square I believe policy needs to have an objective, measureable and universally defendable position and when there is a religious bias that does not hold up to the above it should be prosecuted. If we can do that in a humble way we certainly should.
I believe good public policy is good policy whether if has a foundation in religion or secularism.
Totally agreed. Your statement
ReplyDelete"However in the public square I believe policy needs to have an objective, measurable and universally defendable position and when there is a religious bias that does not hold up to the above it should be prosecuted."
reminded me of a quote by President Obama,
"Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason."
Religion is screwing up the whole country! Why can't we talk politics without it? Even Christian's are supposed to believe in helping the downtrodden, yet the Christian's in the House and Senate seem intent on helping the rich. You don't have to be religious to have values! Humans do the right thing, because it's the right thing! Not because someone in a, "Collar" told you too!
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