Materialist Bigotry at its Finest
Sam Harris displays the true colors of most atheists in this unbalanced article entitled 'Science Must Destroy Religion'. Throughout the article you get the standard, false secular humanist propaganda and horrible fallacies. Just a few to highlight Sam's apparent lack of rationality (And yet he applauds rationality in his post?)

Most people believe that the Creator of the universe wrote (or dictated) one of their books. Unfortunately, there are many books that pretend to divine authorship, and each makes incompatible claims about how we all must live.

Actually, the list of books that claim divine authorship is quite small. Perhaps 2 or 3 if you want to seperate the old and new testaments.

Despite the ecumenical efforts of many well-intentioned people, these irreconcilable religious commitments still inspire an appalling amount of human conflict.

If the religious committments inspire an appalling amount of human conflict, and this is the basis for getting rid of it, then what should we say about atheism, which has been responsible for killing more people in the twentieth century than religion has in the preceding 2000 years. Sam doesn't seem to address this point. No prizes for guessing why.

The difference between science and religion is the difference between a genuine openness to fruits of human inquiry in the 21st century, and a premature closure to such inquiry as a matter of principle.

The irony of this statement is amazing. Considering Sam is discounting any possible historical evidence for non-materialistic phenomena, he has already closed his mind to the possibility of his materialism being wrong 'as a matter of principle'.

Ultimately, Sam's article is a study in how to beg the question. He assumes that materialism is true, and so anything that denies the truth of his beliefs is derided as 'irrational'.

His final paragraph however, reveals his own irrationality

I am hopeful that the necessary transformation in our thinking will come about as our scientific understanding of ourselves matures. When we find reliable ways to make human beings more loving, less fearful, and genuinely enraptured by the fact of our appearance in the cosmos, we will have no need for divisive religious myths. Only then will the practice of raising our children to believe that they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Hindu be broadly recognized as the ludicrous obscenity that it is. And only then will we stand a chance of healing the deepest and most dangerous fractures in our world.

If the universe is all there is, then there is no reason to value love over fear, and no reason to think that religious ideas are obscene. Sam has taken religious theistic morality as a basis for his entire critique of religion. If Sam was consistent with his own beliefs, then he would never have bothered to write this article. Too bad he is so irrational...
- posted by Alan Grey @ Wednesday, January 04, 2006