Sunday, July 22, 2007

Sam Harris, End of Faith - BOOKTV CSPAN2

Sam Harris - End of Faith (1 of 4) [max] sam begins with the prestige given religion against criticism (first) about stem cell research where in between a 3 day old human embryo having 150 cells (hardly human) and a suffering human being who is plagued by an illness. theists put more value to the 3 day old human embryo. (second) theists belief in the soul at conception. if it were true that a soul is assigned to an embryo, then later splits which become two souls (?). what happens when the two souls recombine - which sometimes does happen.

Sam Harris - End of Faith (2 of 4) [max] he talks about the evils of religious moderation giving cover to the inevitable evils of fundamentalism. that is, if christians were to truly follow the bible, specific not metaphorical commandments from leviticus/exodus/thessalonians. slavery, child abuse, murder, genocide, sexism, and rape would all be legal.

Sam Harris - End of Faith (3 of 4) [max] he contines to speak about religious moderation. i am undecided about his point of view on tolerance over other people's irrationalities as being part of the problem. he does have a good point about reason being the only solution to improve the human condition. case in point, i am thinking that tolerance might be the first step and then reason as the last and only step in solving the problem of fundamentalism.

Sam Harris - End of Faith (4 of 4) [max] question and answers part. i believe the best part of the speech. he is asked to respond to religious zealotry, to homosexuality, on morality and ethics as far as statistics comparing the atheistic nations of europe and the states, the multi-verse, anne rice book on jesus?, meditation (c'est pour toi john!), distinction of buddhism compared to the violence we see in christianity and islam, and other topics ..

Rating: 3 out of 5
Makes sense

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