John's Blog - Latest Comments in The End of Faith, by Sam Harris

Re: The End of Faith, by Sam Harris

shaneencl — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:36:46 -0000

I've heard about that book as well from an old friend and it gets me interested. It has some kind of twist on its contents.

Re: The End of Faith, by Sam Harris

Matt — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:16:53 -0000

This is a little outdated, but I was wondering if you were still willing to discuss. For the past couple of months I've been thinking a lot about his arguments. I even wrote "A Letter to Sam Harris" as a blog post mocking the title of "Letter to a Christian Nation," trying to talk about some of his inconsistencies.

Can you be very specific about what you think is taken out of context? I think you either believe the Bible is the word of God and thus even extracting a sentence to illustrate absurdity is not taking something out of context, or you don't believe it. There is no middle ground, because then you are just arbitrarily picking and choosing and interpreting to suit your needs.

Also, I'm looking at titles of more recent posts and I swear this is my own blog with things from Tokyo, Murakami, Vonnegut, On the Road (which may or may not be referring to the book), Cormac McCarthy, Liberty and Security (which may or may not be referring to the Franklin quote that I use as a signature on some forums), and probably more. Are we the same person?

Re: The End of Faith, by Sam Harris

Brian — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:47:46 -0000

I will have to take a look at this book. I think there is much to learn when people of varying beliefs can put aside some of their defensiveness and preconceptions and openly discuss a subject; regardless of how valid the book's points turn out to be, this sort of thing sounds like it will open more people up to the discussion.. Which is always a good thing.

Re: The End of Faith, by Sam Harris

John — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:39:46 -0000

hey gerv -- what i mean is that he takes phrases and fragments from both works, and uses the set of words that are most useful to him, without looking at the larger context that those words are in, or the meaning. it's a cheap parlor trick to take parts of sentences and paragraphs from any book to support any argument you want to make -- he does that a lot in this book.

i actually don't presuppose there's a "true message" of either book (which gives some insight into my point of view, i suppose), and i do have some background in reading both works, although not as current as i'd like.

the point i'm making here is that i dislike the construction of his argument, and the way that he puts fragments in as supporting evidence. i think it's a relatively juvenile way to argue the point, whether ultimately supported or not.

Re: The End of Faith, by Sam Harris

Gerv — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:27:25 -0000

I don’t believe all the arguments here, and he clearly takes much out of context from the Koran and the Bible both.

What makes you say he "clearly" does this? Do you make this assertion after detailed study of either or both of the Bible and the Koran (or the context surrounding the parts of them he quotes), or because of a initial presupposition about what the true message of either book is?

Gerv