Sam Harris Does Understand
This post is a follow up to Sam Harris Doesn’t Understand in which I sought to address the common charge made by atheists that religious faith is entirely self-justifying. I wrote specifically in defense of Christianity and did not presume to defend other religions. Simply restated Sam Harris claims that Christians subscribe to religious propositions without evidence i.e. the very fact that one believes in something constitutes evidence for its actuality. Since Sam Harris believes this it is no wonder why he counts religious faith as a perverse misuse of intelligence. I have hopefully cleared away this misconception regarding the nature of faith in my previous post.
Obviously I am not an atheist, but in the name of rational thinking here is where I must agree with him. In the beginning of his book (The End of Faith pg. 12) Sam Harris states that belief (faith) dictates behavior because belief (faith) defines our vision of the world. This is absolutely true. If one doubts this he asks that you consider how your experience would change if you came to believe any of the following propositions.
1. You have only two weeks to live.
2. You’ve just won a lottery prize of one hundred million dollars.
3. Aliens have implanted a receiver in your skull and are manipulating your thoughts.
There is no question that your life outlook and your behavior would change if you became convinced that any of these were true. It should be obvious that belief dictates behavior, but I understand why he feels he must devote considerable time explaining this. It appears that there are many people who want to have their cake and eat it too. I mean that there are millions of people who profess to believe one thing, but their lifestyles prove otherwise. This is nothing new.
If anyone says [profession], "I love God," and hates [evident in action] his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 1 John 4:20
The other thing is that many people want to affirm (in the name of tolerance) two contradictory claims. Sam Harris sees the truth claims of religion and rightly recognizes, as every Christian should, that two contradictory claims cannot both be true. In my opinion it is easier to deal with this kind of thinking than those who cling to relativism.
Obviously I am not an atheist, but in the name of rational thinking here is where I must agree with him. In the beginning of his book (The End of Faith pg. 12) Sam Harris states that belief (faith) dictates behavior because belief (faith) defines our vision of the world. This is absolutely true. If one doubts this he asks that you consider how your experience would change if you came to believe any of the following propositions.
1. You have only two weeks to live.
2. You’ve just won a lottery prize of one hundred million dollars.
3. Aliens have implanted a receiver in your skull and are manipulating your thoughts.
There is no question that your life outlook and your behavior would change if you became convinced that any of these were true. It should be obvious that belief dictates behavior, but I understand why he feels he must devote considerable time explaining this. It appears that there are many people who want to have their cake and eat it too. I mean that there are millions of people who profess to believe one thing, but their lifestyles prove otherwise. This is nothing new.
If anyone says [profession], "I love God," and hates [evident in action] his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 1 John 4:20
The other thing is that many people want to affirm (in the name of tolerance) two contradictory claims. Sam Harris sees the truth claims of religion and rightly recognizes, as every Christian should, that two contradictory claims cannot both be true. In my opinion it is easier to deal with this kind of thinking than those who cling to relativism.
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