Sam Harris

Hello all,

I’m new here, thx for having me.

I live in Belgium, a really secular country. I don’t experience the same problems many Americans do. In my country there’s no debate about whether evolution is true or not or whether church and state should be separated. There’s no museums here that claim humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.
That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, there’re still issues with religious organisations such as not having to pay taxes and some groups isolating themselves from the rest of society. But that doesn’t seem to be enough incentive for the activist version of atheism in which one might categorize me. There are no debates here about the subject, no projects or events. ( I also happen to like to debate people, especially if their views differ from mine, but i don’t find any theists open to debate, if i find one at all)
Still I take the matter at heart and i personally find it imperative for the human race (regardless of borders&flags;) to transcendent superstitions, misconceptions and ignorance.
So my question to Sam Harris & friends and all you fellow freethinkers is:

What can one do to contribute to this pursuit of reason?  What can I do?

bat speling - 19 November 2012 01:26 PM

Hello all,

I’m new here, thx for having me.

I live in Belgium, a really secular country. I don’t experience the same problems many Americans do. In my country there’s no debate about whether evolution is true or not or whether church and state should be separated. There’s no museums here that claim humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.
That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, there’re still issues with religious organisations such as not having to pay taxes and some groups isolating themselves from the rest of society. But that doesn’t seem to be enough incentive for the activist version of atheism in which one might categorize me. There are no debates here about the subject, no projects or events. ( I also happen to like to debate people, especially if their views differ from mine, but i don’t find any theists open to debate, if i find one at all)
Still I take the matter at heart and i personally find it imperative for the human race (regardless of borders&flags;) to transcendent superstitions, misconceptions and ignorance.
So my question to Sam Harris & friends and all you fellow freethinkers is:

What can one do to contribute to this pursuit of reason?  What can I do?

Improve your persuasion skills so that you can persuade theists of the truth (that religion is mysticism).

Unfortunately, reason doesn’t work well with any cult.

bat speling - 19 November 2012 01:26 PM

Hello all,

I’m new here, thx for having me.

I live in Belgium, a really secular country. I don’t experience the same problems many Americans do. In my country there’s no debate about whether evolution is true or not or whether church and state should be separated. There’s no museums here that claim humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.
That doesn’t mean it’s perfect, there’re still issues with religious organisations such as not having to pay taxes and some groups isolating themselves from the rest of society. But that doesn’t seem to be enough incentive for the activist version of atheism in which one might categorize me. There are no debates here about the subject, no projects or events. ( I also happen to like to debate people, especially if their views differ from mine, but i don’t find any theists open to debate, if i find one at all)
Still I take the matter at heart and i personally find it imperative for the human race (regardless of borders&flags;) to transcendent superstitions, misconceptions and ignorance.
So my question to Sam Harris & friends and all you fellow freethinkers is:

What can one do to contribute to this pursuit of reason?  What can I do?

Speak up whenever the opportunity arises.  If it rarely arises, sit back and relax, and be thankful you aren’t in America.

So my question to Sam Harris & friends and all you fellow freethinkers is:

What can one do to contribute to this pursuit of reason?  What can I do?

I recently had an opportunity to engage my best friend from childhood about religion and what my views were. I immediately sought out to discredit religion in general and his chosen belief in Christianity through a series of well thought out theoretical arguments and concrete examples. After spending over an hour crafting my response he simply came back with, “I don’t want to argue about religion. I still value our friendship even if we don’t agree on this issue.” And that was the end of it.

Now, after watching many of the debates on the topic, I have come realize that there is a broader issue that reaches beyond any religion or belief. Thought process is the issue and that is what I failed to speak to when responding to my friend. When I framed my argument in the context of religion, I was truly behaving as an Atheist. However, as Sam Harris has suggested, more often than not we are pro-critical-thinking and pro-rational-thought more than we are Atheistic. Atheism is a byproduct of rational, scientific analysis. (or should be)

So I would submit that if you focus primarily on eradicating irrational thinking, as opposed to how that irrational thought is manifested in a religious context, you may find more opportunities to engage religious people. But more importantly, you will likely increase the amount of adversaries to engage with since religion isn’t the only bastion of irrational thought. Therefore, there is much work to do.