Jacob B
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Jacob B commented on What is your counsel? on March 23, 2008, 11:09 AM
"faust Ok I agree, but slavery did not offer people psychological comfort, it did not promise people that their loved ones were safe in the arms of a god in an afterlife. You can't compare abolishing slavery with abolishing religious control over this country. I wish there was a way to open everyone's eyes. I do not see a rebirth of American consciousness occurring anytime soon. " As someone else has pointed out, you have confused Harris' discussion of the civil rights movement with the abolishment of slavery, but it doesn't matter, because even if you had identified his argument, your response is still flagrantly incorrect. You seem to be arguing that religion is consoling, and that racism is not. I beg to differ. Racism is certainly empowering to a racist- and was probably, for early humans, socially beneficial in a way similar to having unreasoned faith about religion. Just because racism happens to console some modern people, and letting go of the belief that the white(or black, or any other) race is genetically superior would be emotionally crushing for a racist individual, by no means makes it morally excusable. The same goes for any idea cultivated from the blighted fields of unreason. You don't see any chance of an American shift in consciousness, but neither did any civil rights activists or the first proponents of Darwinian evolution.
Jacob B commented on What is your counsel? on March 23, 2008, 3:09 PM
"faustOk I agree, but slavery did not offer people psychological comfort, it did not promise people that their loved ones were safe in the arms of a god in an afterlife. You can't compare abolishing slavery with abolishing religious control over this country. I wish there was a way to open everyone's eyes. I do not see a rebirth of American consciousness occurring anytime soon. "As someone else has pointed out, you have confused Harris' discussion of the civil rights movement with the abolishment of slavery, but it doesn't matter, because even if you had identified his argument, your response is still flagrantly incorrect. You seem to be arguing that religion is consoling, and that racism is not. I beg to differ. Racism is certainly empowering to a racist- and was probably, for early humans, socially beneficial in a way similar to having unreasoned faith about religion. Just because racism happens to console some modern people, and letting go of the belief that the white(or black, or any other) race is genetically superior would be emotionally crushing for a racist individual, by no means makes it morally excusable. The same goes for any idea cultivated from the blighted fields of unreason. You don't see any chance of an American shift in consciousness, but neither did any civil rights activists or the first proponents of Darwinian evolution.