Coyote, I think what Mr Harris is trying to say in the interview about moderates legitimizing extremists is meant very much the way hartreefoch has put it. A moderate believer "indirectly fosters the craziness of extremists".
Put it this way, the main point being made here is that the premise of religious affiliation is irrational belief - a belief without evidence, without essential substantiation (and usually fuelled by a hefty amount of childhood indoctrination). OK, so a moderate may well promote a nice, palatable, socially acceptable belief system, but fundamentally the act of the moderate believer and that of an extremist believer is actually the same - ie: irrational belief. In a way, the extremist is merely taking this irrationalism, and bringing it to its logical conclusion (which is why I often feel that they are at least being more concise and in a way consistent (might I even say honest?) in their irrationality!).
I can't remember what post I recently mentioned this on, but the whole being scared of going to hell thing is a perfect case in point. An extremist will go around preaching how you better believe what he/she says or the devil will get you and make you suffer as you are essentially sinful and now that you know you are sinful and that Jesus is your only redemption etc. then you really have no more excuses etc. etc.
A moderate will preach how Jesus is love and all the wonderful things Jesus has done for you. But believe you me, if you peel away at the moderate you will uncover the fire and brimstone anyway. Just because it's not on the front cover of the moderates' PR manual, does not mean that it's not in the book.
Where's the difference at the end of the day?
If you consider an earlier post I wrote about setting up a belief system which holds that large teapots floating in the sky are in fact what is controlling what is happening on earth (I may not be able to prove this, but you can't disprove it either, so there!). Isn't the very belief in the teapot extreme enough on the cloud-cuckoo-land richter scale? Does it really matter if some of the teapot believers who have joined me run around being more vehement in their belief than others? Surely the belief in the teapot itself is scary enough as it is?
Thanks again hartreefoch - what a great topic starter!
best wishes
Ingrid
PS: hartreefoch, this whole irrationalism thing - maybe it's because we all tend to be motivated by reactive emotions at the end of the day - and unfortunately Fear ends up being team coach most of the time!
