Discussion Group Report

The May Discussion Group subject was a lecture given by author Sam Harris titled "View From the End of the World," contained on an audio CD I was given. The group received copies of the disc, which contained a lecture that Harris has presented around the country at a number of venues. He begins by saying he is going to talk about belief, specifically religious belief, and acknowledges that he will offend some in the audience. He also understands that just being provocative or nasty is not useful and that discourse should remain civil.

Having made that disclaimer, Harris does proceed to criticize religion, quite harshly at times. But much of his censure is backed by strong examples, such as his analysis of the religious belief that condom use is immoral. He calls it "genocidal stupidity" when you map that belief onto sub-Saharan Africa, where AIDS is an enormous problem and condom use is a well established means of prevention.

He spends a considerable amount of time on the subject of religious moderates. Harris agrees that moderates are better than fundamentalists because "they don't fly airplanes into buildings." But he also blasts religious moderates, saying that they give cover to fundamentalists by insisting that we be non-critical of religion, specifically religious faith. Noting that religious faith stops ethical debate simply because it is taboo to criticize someone's faith-based view of an issue, he advocates that we develop a "conversational intolerance" and not allow religion to escape scrutiny.

Harris has much more to say in this lecture than can be listed here. I tend to agree with him when he says that much of what is going on in our society (controversies about stem cell research, intelligent design, etc.) represent a conflict between science and religion, and that religion has been successful in "eroding science."

In the end, Harris advocates that we use reason. Again, I agree, Reason is a good M.O.

A few copies of the disc are available; if anyone is interested in getting a copy, please contact me. The discussion can also be found on Sam Harris' web page.

--Bob Lane