Question: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the way the world is headed?
Sam Harris: Well I can’t say that I’m an optimist. I see that this … Our emotional attachment to these myths is so well subscribed and so deep. And the belief … Even people who are not religious believe that everyone else needs to be religious. It’s like, “I don’t need it” – it’s the ultimate condescending attitude – “but everyone else does.” This is a myth that is also widely subscribed even among atheists. So the inertia in the system around really just having an honest conversation about what it’s reasonable to believe, and what religion is doing in the world is profound. So I’m certainly not optimistic, but I don’t know what else to do. And I see how … how tissue-thin these beliefs actually are. I mean it would be so easy to just unburden ourselves of all of this mythology. It would be an accomplishment of a single generation if we just taught our children reasonably about the Bible’s place in literature. You know the Bible is not science, and it’s not particularly good philosophy; but it is literature. Let’s read the Bible, and then let’s read all these other books about dead gods like … “Metamorphoses.” If we taught the Bible and the Koran in that way, in a single generation, the God of Abraham would take his place alongside Zeus, and Poseidon, and Apollo and the other dead gods, and none of this would be a problem. But that … Is that likely to happen? I think not.
Recorded on: Jul 4 2007
Discuss
Chug Bears on March 11, 2008, 12:49 PM
Sam,
I agree most of that statement. You are right, the Bible is not science or philosophy. But you left out that it is literature encoded as symbolic astrology. Such as Jesus being the son, not the Sun. And the similarities between Jesus and his 12 apostles, verses the 12 signs of the zodiac that revolve around the Sun. There is a lot more, and it's not just Christianity. It is all religions, they all contain ancient subliminal symbolism of astronomy and astrology cycles.
I'm with you, society is completely become segregated. What happen to reason and rationality? Religion at this day and age has divided morals and ethics. Since there is no global standard of ethics, theres no will to change. Because you and i both know people fear change more than anything!
My particular favorite cultures are the Mayans, Egyptians, and the Ancient Chinese. All 3 cultures were way ahead of their time and used symbols instead of letters or numbers. The Maya specifically were the most advance, mapping out the sky years before the telescope was invented. These civilizations knew the cycles, and they innovated time keeping. Now we rely on vague out dated texts that have been misinterpreted and rewritten hundreds of times.
I'm glad theres people like you articulating the information on a large scale. This information is not something the majority of people on this planet would conform to. We need a Global Educational Standard! Among numerous other logically sensible changes to our International Diplomacy.
Chug Bears on March 11, 2008, 4:49 PM
Sam,
I agree most of that statement. You are right, the Bible is not science or philosophy. But you left out that it is literature encoded as symbolic astrology. Such as Jesus being the son, not the Sun. And the similarities between Jesus and his 12 apostles, verses the 12 signs of the zodiac that revolve around the Sun. There is a lot more, and it’s not just Christianity. It is all religions, they all contain ancient subliminal symbolism of astronomy and astrology cycles.
I’m with you, society is completely become segregated. What happen to reason and rationality? Religion at this day and age has divided morals and ethics. Since there is no global standard of ethics, theres no will to change. Because you and i both know people fear change more than anything!
My particular favorite cultures are the Mayans, Egyptians, and the Ancient Chinese. All 3 cultures were way ahead of their time and used symbols instead of letters or numbers. The Maya specifically were the most advance, mapping out the sky years before the telescope was invented. These civilizations knew the cycles, and they innovated time keeping. Now we rely on vague out dated texts that have been misinterpreted and rewritten hundreds of times.
I’m glad theres people like you articulating the information on a large scale. This information is not something the majority of people on this planet would conform to. We need a Global Educational Standard! Among numerous other logically sensible changes to our International Diplomacy.
Kitty Givens on March 9, 2009, 8:37 AM
If we, as suggested, in this generation taught our children this way, then they’d not have to endure the physical and psychological torture of religion.
If one is to be reasonable, and has been taken in by religion, it takes a completely new education, (and often psychotherapy) to break free from the bonds that have been holding one back.
Imagine a world in which people are brought up to think!
tim hall on April 11, 2009, 3:28 PM
If you take fear out of the equation, it becomes just the unknown. Humans will seek answers to the unknown. Like why the big round thing in the sky did not provide much heat today or the rain has not come to grow my food for weeks. For a lot of folks, religion makes their lives less frustrating. Instead of having to work through every problem, religion allows them to let it go. They can go on and continue to be productive with out all the answers. This makes complete sense. What makes even more sense is having the tools to quickly arrive at answers and solutions.
Not only having tools available but having the knowledge of how to use them.
I am astonished at how many people research historic literature without the use of a professional linguist. They are so afraid (fear) of the truth, that they conjure up in their mind that somehow the professional linguist is changing the meaning of the material that the scribe wrote. That is fine. But they stop there and refuse to research further to validate their accusation.(more fear)
Then there is the “Argument Culture” Debra Tanen 1998. She discusses how subjects get argued for the sake of winning instead of simply laying out the facts and discussing the facts.
If you are wrong about what you believe to be the truth, then your whole life may seem like a lie. Some folks will never be able to cope with that, without an extreme amount of one on one instruction. But hey, communication is moving at astronomical speed and that in itself causes it to create itself exponentially. I just wish I were born later and got to witness people communicating rationally without fear.
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