Sam Harris Vs Scott Atran Enlightment 2.0

Here they go again. Check out these links for further on the discussion:

http://www.edge.org/discourse/bb.html#atran2

http://www.edge.org/discourse/bb.html#harris

http://www.edge.org/discourse/bb.html#dennett

Scott Atran is a brilliant guy, but he has too much respect for religion in general and I think it is clouding his sense of judgement.

To help the viewers understand Sam, some glossary:

confabulatory - (Style of conversation) Of the nature of familiar talk; in the form of a dialogue.

orthogonal - here it means to touch upon, but not directly related to the issue on hand

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Sam
• Harris
• Scott
• Atran
• Debate
• Beyond
• Belief

[liverlee100]

scott atran has spent decades studying the phenomenon in the field. Sam Harris has read the Koran.

[82abhilash]

@liverlee100 Yeah, that is probably why people took the time and effort to listen to what he had to say mostly during the late 80s and early 90s. The deficiency in his methods come from not critically examining the religious aspect of the phenomena. That is his limitation. It is mostly a self-imposed limitation, but at that time there was also a taboo against criticizing religion. Even in a free country you pay a price both socially and professionally. Sam Harris makes up for that deficiency.

[TurboDally]

The only people who should feel "white guilt", are those directly involved in the enslavement of the blacks. If all whites now should feel guilt for the black slave trade, so should the Arabs who equally butchered them, hell, I should be hating on blacks for what they did to my ancestors :D Just be careful, that's all.

[TurboDally]

@ScottBrown666

Are you retarded? You read my comment and you came to the conclusion that I'm some kind of a moderate racism? Read the comment again you fool. I'll make it clear since your English comprehension isn't all that good: if we're going to use white guilt, you may as well have Arab guilt also since Arabs too enslaved the blacks equally as the Europeans. Or how about Indians hate on all whites and Arabs? It's stupid to tar an entire race for what a few did in the past.

Now fuck off.

[msjessypp]

great video thanks

[flutterandwow]

@liverlee100 But then again, Scott thinks we can explain Jihad as by "young adults who are in transition stages in their lives: immigrants, students, those still in search of friends, mates or jobs." Or stop suicide bombers by creating a "21st-century version [...] the Boy Scouts and high school football teams" He never says the doctrines of Islam seriously play a part! Sam points this out very well.

[SpearofDestiny0]

Sam Harris brought up a good point about "white guilt". I find there are a lot of Liberal (and Conservative) White Americans who refuse to call out the wrongs of people in other cultures or countries, because they think they are being prejudiced or bigoted...it's a shame. Violence and cruelty are violence and cruelty in any country, in any language, in any aspect of the world.

[funcpl2741054]

'philosophy of harmony' = stupidity.....'confabutory' = speaking in a droll quiet voice to fool the masses into thinking gibberish is intelligence. Atran = a useful fool

[Mishkafofer]

@TurboDally Should blacks feel quilt for mass murder and genocide in Africa such as Rwanda or Darfur? I just want to understand the framework of racial quilt theory. Can it work both ways?

[kris6682]

@TurboDally not only that but if whites should feel guilt for black enslavement then so should blacks as many of them were sold or traded to whites by blacks from other local tribes

[rt36crazyfists]

Harris FTW

[enlightendbel]

@liverlee100 Scott Atran doesn't dare to speak his utter arrogant and ignorant bullshit, that religion has nothing to do with anything, when he is faced with someone like Ayaan Hirsi Ali or others who faced the oh so fantastic islam from birth.

He is right that religion is not the only problem or cause, but his extreme arrogance in denouncing and attacking people like Harris for saying religion IS a big part of the problem is disgusting and utterly ignorant.

Atran is biased as hell.