tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592514.post8854544714384818757..comments2023-10-24T03:46:41.971-07:00Comments on Contingencies: Karen Armstrong vs. the DawkinsistasJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592514.post-37494312035641564522010-02-23T15:31:39.122-08:002010-02-23T15:31:39.122-08:00Even some HuffPo regulars take issue with HarrisSp...Even some HuffPo regulars take issue with HarrisSpeak:<br /><br />Madeleine Bunting quotes Harris in saying "some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them," and states "[t]his sounds like exactly the kind of argument put forward by those who ran the Inquisition."[37] Quoting the same passage, theologian Catherine Keller asks, Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592514.post-32345812120567983162010-02-23T14:51:31.054-08:002010-02-23T14:51:31.054-08:00Honesty is not itself always good--Mein Kampf'...Honesty is not itself always good--Mein Kampf's honest as well. It's rightist, or center-right at least. As was Harris's support of Bush and the neo-cons. You're just defending Harris because he's hip, a HuffPo reg, or Steinford academic, etc. <br /><br />He's not exceptionally articulate. Read the neo-atheists real mentor, Hume--a superb prose writer. Or Bentham , Mill. Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592514.post-28867899275055581152010-02-23T14:37:43.565-08:002010-02-23T14:37:43.565-08:00I didn't see the article as being left or righ...I didn't see the article as being left or right, but just intellectually honest. I found it a good read and my considerable respect for Sam Harris is undiminished. It was a bold analysis, and well articulated.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01902187799552292369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592514.post-24146861352132633492010-02-23T13:55:51.611-08:002010-02-23T13:55:51.611-08:00I suspect many saw HuffPo a few years ago and thou...I suspect many saw HuffPo a few years ago and thought Harris liberal, when the article is as rightwing as anything Pat Buchanan ever wrote, if not to a Buchanan's right. <br /><br />Had this article been published in say Slate, or some rightwing site, Harris would have been denounced and ridiculed. But framing it in HuffPo, he gets away with it. <br /><br />Most reasonable people would have &Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592514.post-13954653705694544992010-02-23T13:27:36.891-08:002010-02-23T13:27:36.891-08:00Fascinating. Despite the title (In Defense of Tort...Fascinating. Despite the title (In Defense of Torture) the piece is equally effective as an argument against bombing, and, essentially, war itself. I am not such an absolutist to categorically eliminate the possibility of the ticking time bomb scenario and the necessity to use extreme means in such a case. But I do have a couple of big problems with the use of torture. One is the hypocrisy of theUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01902187799552292369noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592514.post-74962845824106795182010-02-23T11:41:46.877-08:002010-02-23T11:41:46.877-08:00re Sam Harris and Torture (a fairly well known ess...re Sam Harris and Torture (a fairly well known essay, that is, to anyone who actually bothers to read the neo-atheist neo-cons).<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-harris/in-defense-of-torture_b_8993.html<br /><br /><br />And really one could argue that Harris's sort of primitive utilitarian justification of torture (which flows quite naturally from his atheism) could be used by anyJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592514.post-89243977092770290182010-02-22T14:57:42.036-08:002010-02-22T14:57:42.036-08:00Armstrong, hardly some biblethumping baptist (she&...Armstrong, hardly some biblethumping baptist (she's irish, and a former nun), rightly objects to the Dawkins or Harris-like frat-boy reductionism. Not all believers are Jerry Falwells, or jihadists, or conservatives. The last two popes have both criticized US actions in iraq and middle east--more than say Harris or Hitchens did. <br /><br /> Keep in mind most read Dawkins, and certainly Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5592514.post-56885484457919025062010-02-22T14:29:01.772-08:002010-02-22T14:29:01.772-08:00"The Dawkins-esque bottlewasher waves his han..."The Dawkins-esque bottlewasher waves his hand or scoffs, but a mother's prayer means something in a religious realm--a heartfelt prayer has significance"<br /><br />Wait, did somebody steal your blog again? This rubbish can't be from you can it?<br /><br />I was sure you were setting up Ms. Armstrong for the deliciously brutal takedown she well deserves. What a horrific Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01902187799552292369noreply@blogger.com