Sam Harris

In The End of Faith book, in the chapter ‘The Problem with Islam’ Sam Harris asks the reader

“To imagine what it would take to live peacefully with the christians of the fourteenth century - Christians who were still eager to prosecute people for crimes like host desecration and witchcraft.”

He uses this little thought experiment to allow the reader to comprehend the problem of islam in the world. But what I would like to know is…
What happened to the christians of the fourteenth century? I mean, at what point did the witch hunts stop?

What was the catalyst(s) for the progression of moral development that eventually took place in that society back in the fourteenth century?
And if there are identifiable factors which caused a shift to a more ‘moral society’ then could these be applied to Islamic countries?

And if there are identifiable factors which caused a shift to a more ‘moral society’ then could these be applied to Islamic countries?

Unfortunately, no.
All those atrocities committed by the Church authorities, like the Spanish Inquisition, witch hunts, etc, , where not rooted in anything Jesus said or did but in the fanaticism of the disgusting Church clergy. Jesus himself was a lovey dovey, pro-life sort of fellow who didn’t want to kill people (very unlike Muhammad) and so these horrible practices could just fade away with the fading public support and loss of police power. But extreme intolerance and violent jihad are rooted in the very texts of the Koran and the hadiths. Fundamentalists can always point to these texts and win arguments over moderates.

MuseChaser - 30 April 2011 04:24 AM

And if there are identifiable factors which caused a shift to a more ‘moral society’ then could these be applied to Islamic countries?

Unfortunately, no.
All those atrocities committed by the Church authorities, like the Spanish Inquisition, witch hunts, etc, , where not rooted in anything Jesus said or did but in the fanaticism of the disgusting Church clergy. Jesus himself was a lovey dovey, pro-life sort of fellow who didn’t want to kill people (very unlike Muhammad) and so these horrible practices could just fade away with the fading public support and loss of police power. But extreme intolerance and violent jihad are rooted in the very texts of the Koran and the hadiths. Fundamentalists can always point to these texts and win arguments over moderates.

do you know that Jesus (your take on Isa Alaihissalam) and Muhammad SAW shared the same view on faith to one god?

Did your Bible truly told you that Jesus is undeniably a god’s begotten son?

How many sons does G-d had anyway? Does Thor, Hercules, were G-d’s sons too?

the so called violence are rooted merely on hadith base. and do your time reading, read your bible and compare it to hadith…hadith are Bible based, and Bible was a word of man.

I reject hadith because I reject the violence promoted on the BIBLE.