The Shadowlit Realms
| Labyrinth of the Mind |
If only they truly could see the lightI have just started reading Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris, who is an atheist, and EVERYONE!!! needs to read this book. It just completely blows me away. Everything he says is just so spot on. Virtually every single paragraph in this book I want to quote. While there are many who would disagree with the things he says (Naturally being the Christians) as much as they might not like it, and want to huff and puff about it, there is really no logical or reasonable argument that can be made against Harris' position within this book (Of course Christians as we know do not need reason or logic for any of the things they do) his position is rock solid, though some might say it is biased or propaganda, that does not change the simple facts, he intelligently analyzes passages from the Bible as well as drawing from plain and simple hard evidence, solid real life facts.
The whole basis behind the book is challenging the so called morality of the Bible and pointing out the fallacy in using the Bible as a moral guide, as well as showing the way in which the Bible can lead to misguided morality, and how morals can stand on their own completely without God. He juxtaposes the Bible to the dogma's of other ancient religions, for example, he talks about Jainism and the way in which under Jainism, there is no way an inquisition could be started, and then justified through their religious teachings, the way in which it can with Christianity. The other thing I really like, is the fact that it is common among many Christians to try and use the argument that the New Testament cancels out all the bad stuff of the Old Testament, but Harris shows the way in which this is a misconception, and the New Testament, often actually supports the Old Testament, and at any rates does not clearly flat out deny it. And I love his arguments in approaching the abortion issue, in which he points out that Christians are more concerned with offending God with nudity and with sex itself then they are with alleviating human suffering. The way in which sex in itself is not a true moral issue, but Christians make it so, while people dying of HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases, and the need for education on safe sex to help prevent abortions in the long run our true moral issues, but the Christians don't really care about helping people who are suffering from these diseases, and in fact in some cases try and actually prevent vaccines, as well as go into 3rd world countries to preach against condom use, where people do not have access to any other information, because they think these things will promote premarital sex, and they rather condemn people to suffering, illness and death, even though it is proven statistically that abstinence only does very little to actually prevent premarital sex. But knowing that there is a likelihood that teenagers especially may very well engage in intercourse, and just telling them not to have sex, probably won't be enough to prevent them from doing so, Christians would rather have them have their lives ruined by the possibility of HIV, or cervical cancer, or other STD's or possibly becoming pregnant, which could directly lead up to having abortion, rather then just saying, well you shouldn't do this, but if you are going to, at least you some preventive and protective measures. Of course as much as this book is brilliant, and behind it has a certain sardonic humor to it, it is also maddening, because you know the plain, sad, simple truth, as well constructed as it is, the people like me will naturally always agree, because we already think that way as it is, and the Christians, even if they don't have a leg to stand on, will still continue to obstinately disagree because they cannot give over themselves and their own ignorance, and their demented ideas about morality. 11:01 AM - 7/8/2009 - post comment
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 For though All are not able to write books, all conceive themselves able to judge them. ~The Monk
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