[Vision2020] Earmark and intial comments on Ralph's Religion and morality

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

Phil et. al.

I do not agree with everything Sam Harris expresses on the subject of 
religion and the harm it may do.  

But the book he wrote, "The End of Faith," that I presented to Vision2020, 
focuses in large part on what we do/may face with extreme religious belief 
leading some to think it their God/Allah, etc., given duty to commit horrendous 
attacks against other human beings, using powerful weapons of various kinds.  One 
entire chapter of this book deals with "The Problem With Islam."

I watched and heard him state, when he was interviewed on C-Span, that if he 
could snap his fingers and make everyone a "moderate" he would do so.  He also 
said that when he talks to "liberals" he gets slammed for his critical 
examination of Islam, and applauded for his critique of fundamentalist Christianity, 
yet when talking to "conservatives," he is applauded for his critical look at 
extremism in Islam, yet frowned upon for his critical look at extremism in 
Christianity.  Of course this is within the policital/ideological climate within 
the USA.

Mr. Harris also stated he incurs the wrath of some very science minded 
individuals for his position regarding leaving the door open for explorations of 
various "supernatural" and/or spiritual quests and experiences, though Harris's 
position on this issue I think remains firm that we do not abandon rational 
fact based science in these spiritual endeavors.  Thus, creationism taught as 
"science" is bogus, and if your God/Allah commands you to kill for your faith, 
you might require some professional help to facilitate the rational/fact 
processing areas of the brain.

Ted Moffett
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