Listening to Sam Harris…
…on his justification for ditching religion.
To be clear, I am NOT an atheist. Sam Harris is a rather outspoken one. I am quite the opposite. However I very firmly believe that most of the religions have evolved from a failed moral compass and device of social regulation, to an overgrown venue of business, extremism, and most importantly they represent a HUGE stubborn craze that refuses to allow the human social mechanism to evolve. Simply put, the wrong people are steering a moral compass that has been over-interpreted for hundreds of years, at the cost of millions of lives. This is not a factor of all religions, but those teaching intolerance on any scale are a part of the problem, and likely in thought and deed seek to continue this in order to maintain their own social-political structure within a population.
Please listen to him. He is not attacking your belief or spirituality. He is attacking its role in government and perceived social convention, whereby those beliefs are not able to tread on me and mine.
Morality is what we make of it. In relying on another to provide those decisions, a demonstration of example and trust would be a prerequisite. As Sam as put it, it is possible for us all to use morality in a logical model and prove clearly that some things are easily right or wrong. While these answers would easily be different for everyone, the sense of general right and wrong…without the religious compass, becomes very easily defined.
You see, spiritual grabs for power are just that. Grabs for power. In allowing someone else to direct your moral compass, you forfeit the value of your own (assumed learned) opinion. Why anyone would do this I have no idea. I think some people are actually afraid to think and act on this level. But once there, it is truly a learning experience.
Sam Harris has written a couple very thought-provoking books: The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. I am in the process of reading them both, but I can already recommend them.
