I feel a bit silly now. I didn’t realize that Chris Hedges’s argument (that I just posted about) ran to three pages. I only read the first page.

Now I realize that Chris Hedges is really me. I must have gone to that debate and said all those things under my Chris Hedges pseudonym and had forgotten all about it until now.

The only difference between me and Chris, as far as I can tell from his opening argument in his debate against Sam Harris is the word we use to label our sense of wonder at the universe, our obligation to make our world a better place and our love and respect for our neighbours. He calls that God.

One minor quibble…

Sam’s argument that atheists have a higher moral code is as specious as his attacks on Islam. Does he forget Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot? These three alone filled the earth with more corpses in the last century than all of the world’s clerics combined.

I haven’t read Harris’s bit yet (since it is not online yet) but if he really claimed that atheists have a higher moral code then shame on him. There is no atheist moral code. Moral codes are formed by people regardless of a belief (or absence of a belief in God) . And shame on Hedges. Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot were tribalists far more than they where atheists.

And, while I thought his case for the monotheistic religions being the driving force behind individualism was a bit stretched, I liked this bit.

The danger is not Islam or Christianity or any other religion. It is the human heart—the capacity we all have for evil. All human institutions with a lust for power give their utopian visions divine sanction, whether this comes through the worship of God, destiny, historical inevitability, the master race, a worker’s paradise, fraternite-egalite-liberte or the second coming of Jesus Christ.

There is so much good stuff in his argument though that I read it three times.

The moment the writers of the Gospels set down the words of Jesus they began to kill the message.

You should read it at least once.

Faith does not conflict with scientific truth, unless faith claims to express a scientific truth. Faith can neither be affirmed nor denied by scientific, historical or philosophical truth. Sam confuses the irrational—which he sees as part of faith—with the non-rational. There is a reality that is not a product of rational deduction.

…

It is an expression of loyalty to a community, to our tribe. Faith is what we do. This is real faith.

Hey - I am a man of faith. Who knew?

I have always thought that Sam Harris overdoes his ‘religion is responsible for all the ills of the world’ pitch but it’s not often that I agree with his critics as much as I agreed with Chris Hedges in a recent debate :

Sam Harris has conflated faith with tribalism. His book is an attack not on faith but on a system of being and believing that is dangerous and incompatible with the open society. He attacks superstition, a belief in magic and the childish notion of an anthropomorphic God that is characteristic of the tribe, of the closed society. He calls this religion. I do not.

I found myself agreeing with more and more with Chris to the point where I almost shouted ‘Right on, brother!’ during this bit:

God is the name we give to our belief that life has meaning, one that transcends the world’s chaos, randomness and cruelty. To argue about whether God exists or does not exist is futile. The question is not whether God exists. The question is whether we concern ourselves with, or are utterly indifferent to, the sanctity and ultimate transcendence of human existence. God is that mysterious force—and you can give it many names as other religions do—which works upon us and through us to seek and achieve truth, beauty and goodness. God is perhaps best understood as our ultimate concern, that in which we should place our highest hopes, confidence and trust.

That’s when I started to wonder if Chris was a spiritual atheist. Like me.

You scored as Spiritual Atheist, Ah! Some of the coolest people in the world are Spiritual Atheists. Most of them weren’t brought up in an organized religion and have very little baggage. They concentrate on making the world a better place and know that death is just another part of life. What comes after, comes after.

What kind of atheist are you?

According to a new poll by CBS, 62% of Americans say they want the terrorists to win.

The new Creation Museum opens next week. People from Kentucky must be very proud.

The Creation Museum, opening May 28, 2007, presents a “walk through history.” Designed by a former Universal Studios exhibit director, this state-of-the-art 60,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life.

The New York Times has a great review:

But step a little farther into the entrance hall, and you come upon a pastoral scene undreamt of by any natural history museum. Two prehistoric children play near a burbling waterfall, thoroughly at home in the natural world. Dinosaurs cavort nearby, their animatronic mechanisms turning them into alluring companions, their gaping mouths seeming not threatening, but almost welcoming, as an Apatosaurus munches on leaves a few yards away.

The review is notable because it departs from the usual he said, she said format to tell the story like it really is.

Start accepting evolution or an ancient Earth, and the result is like the giant wrecking ball, labeled “Millions of Years,” that is shown smashing the ground at the foundation of a church, the cracks reaching across the gallery to a model of a home in which videos demonstrate the imminence of moral dissolution. A teenager is shown sitting at a computer; he is, we are told, looking at pornography.

Visitors should note that firearms and pets are not permitted in the museum.