Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Beyond Human Why Religion Must End: Interview with Sam Harris

I think that in the argument there is a fallacy that belief in something requiring blind faith necessarily supports or enables violent behavior. I would figure that as a scientist you would be particularly sensitive to flawed arguments involving cause and effect.

John supports Christianity.
A Christian committed murder.
Therefore, John supports murder.

The buzzer should go off, there.

You can support blind faith in one idea and not in another if you have criteria other than "blind faith is a-ok!" involved. For instance, a Christian does not support a Muslim by default simply because their belief systems share faith as a value.

For the record, though, I do believe that it is better to make hamburger out of the sacred cows. Catholics should be allowed to use condoms, for heaven's sake. I agree that a serious update should be made to a lot of dogma.

But the philosophy that one should obey even though it is irrational is not the same as the philosophy that one should obey even though it is unethical. Do you get my meaning?

My mother is a devout Catholic, and she believes a lot of stuff I consider nonsense, but I respect her beliefs. I am able to do this because she behaves in a fashion that is in accordance to her personal ethics. In many cases, you will see normal people operating under the principle: personal ethics first, religious dictate second. Even though they may give lip-service to the value of faith, obedience, and servitude.

I do not think that religion makes people crazy in a lot of these instances. Rather, various religions contain material and patterns that fit in very nicely with the crazy thinking of insane people.

Perhaps we should blame the notion of God for supporting crazy people who kill others because the voice of God told them to do it? Without the concept of God, that crazy person could not label the entity behind the injunction as the end-all be-all who must be obeyed.

But, of course, this idea is ridiculous. It is not the concept of God that causes crazy people to believe God is commanding them to kill. It is not the concept that one should obey without question that causes these crazy people to kill. I think that there is much more to it than that.