CelticBear’s Musings
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And Elvis’ death only happened not long ago and with proof, yet…
Posted by CelticBear on April 7th, 2006
Listened to a very interesting podcast today:
Sam Harris – The End of Faith
Sam Harris is the author of The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason.
He has an interesting philosophy: “Religion is what allows millions of people to openly believe what one person would be considered insane for believing.”
He posits that to a greater or lesser degree, ALL religions are dangeous as they allow people to inform their lives with beliefs that revolve around the absurd. And this becomes dangerous when people who believe in absurdities as truth are in positions of power and control.
For this and other reasons, we must be less tolarant of religion.
It’s like this: There are people who believe Elvis is still alive. And when someone expresses this belief they’re often met with ridicule and criticism and we are free to discuss openly the absurdities of such a belief. Believing Elvis is alive isn’t illegal, nor should it be illegal! But we generally don’t let people with such absurd ideas into positions of power and influence.
And yet, someone who believes in vigin births and talking bushes thousands of years ago, we are required by society to not criticize or challenge or speak ill of. And unfortunately, such as in the case of Islam, we allow such an exteme amount of tolarance that we allow it to flourish into cultures of hate and violence.
Suicide bombers are obvious, but the danger can also be less overt. We say “OK, so it’s fine that a Catholic priest wants to preach against contraception like condoms. What’s the harm in that.” But then you find out that Catholics in Africa are preaching the sins of condoms while literally millions of people are dying of AIDS and spreading the plague further and further.
There is danger in all religion to some degree. Harris, again, doesn’t believe religion should be outlawed any more than things like astrology, but we should be free to criticize and disagree and challenge religion openly and in public. And hopefully, eventually, religion may be believed in but won’t be as socially influential any more than beliefs in Elvis or UFO abductions.
