Sam Harris

The old axiom: "Illogic always benefits the illogical side in any debate" was not only illustrated in real time in these clips, but proves ironically that, although Mr.Harris' detractors may pretend to miss the point of his assertions, they do in fact understand and make an unabashed business of employing every tactic they can collectively invoke to blunt, divert, confuse, and discredit reason.  Out of their mouths it comes: "Men will do bad things." as they do them.

  I know now that the sinking feeling of helplessness that I had when prayer was forced on me in public schools: (that the school, and maybe even my parents must have had some kind reason for this disinformation) is very real and present in the world at large and runs much more deeply than could ever have been imagined by a 6 year old.

  Thank You Mr Harris

  R.M

The idea of religion impinging upon public education is as old as public education itself.  Starting with the Industrial Revolution and its “three R” curriculum, public education has almost always been an attempt to make a population more valuable to the needs of both the industrialists and the State.  Religion plays a major part of this; as both an “ethical” code and an “opium for the masses.”  In Mr. Harris’ latest thread topic, he talks about the place the ten commandments hold in our law books; and how the myth of their being the foundation of our legal structure has been propagated.  I think it important to note that while it doesn’t fit well into the law books, the ten commandments do fit well into a control mechanism.  While the first four are most certainly religious in nature, the next few “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not steal,” and even, “Thou shalt not covet” effectively remove the desire and the justification for any moves by a lower class of people to attempt to equalize their standing with those above them.  It remains obvious as to why you would want to effectively cement these ideals in the minds of the young.