We watched an interview with Sam Harris in class on Friday, and I was very interested in his ideas. The video above is Harris telling us a bit about his background and how 9/11 sparked these recent interests in religion. I agree with some of his ideas about religion and how heavily people base judgements off of it, but at the same time I feel he is speaking in extremes and not being understanding. In this video and his other videos I've watched I always get the impression that he thinks what he believes is right and everyone else is unintelligent for believing in religion. I'm glad that he has learned about other religions and didn't make a blanket judgement like I think many people today do , but I still think Harris is discounting some of the elements of religion. He talks about how people in the US turned to religion after 9/11, and I don't think that is such a bad thing. As I stated above once we start basing all of our decisions on religious ideals that is a problem, especially in a country where not everyone shares those ideals. However comfort is a function of religion. Many of the psalms we read were written as a way to find comfort and reassurance. Even the ur-religions and mounds served to proved comfort to their creators.
If you are interested in more of what Sam Harris has to say check out http://www.samharris.org/. On the website he has links to interesting recent articles on religious topics.
I think this is a good general take on Harris. And it does take empathy to see the world through someone else's eyes.. and that is what it means to study religion..
ReplyDelete