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December 26, 2005
Sam Harris says "Bah Humbug"
I recently caught Sam "The End of Faith" Harris's lecture "The View From the End of the World" on NPR. Harris's basic theme is the convention of deference that our society pays towards matters of faith--he's against it. (MP3). I'm fairly sympathetic to this basic point: as things stand, claiming that your ethico-moral position is grounded in your religion is more or less a conversation-ender, no matter how indefensible that position would otherwise be. And many positions that people defend that way do strike me as otherwise indefensible. On the other hand, Harris's suggestion that this may be the worst problem the world faces strikes me as a bit of an exaggeration.Posted by ekr at December 26, 2005 12:56 PM | Filed under: