Sam Harris - Misconceptions About Atheism

amusiathread Says:

Nov 20, 2009 - AWESOME!! Great vid. I'm buying his book right away. He's found the words to say so many things I couldn't find the words to describe.

DuckPhup Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Nonsense. When Sam speaks of 'spirituality', it has to do with 'self-realization'... NOT 'spirits'. So-called 'spiritual' experiences are accessible to ANYONE, via many routes... meditation... prayer... chanting... rhythmic dance... drumming... mantras... etc. These experiences get filtered and interpreted via internalized 'belief' filters'. 10 people have essentially the same experience, and we get 10 different interpretations, depending on beliefs. (continued...)

DuckPhup Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - (continued...) These experiences involve altered states of consciousness, and may even involve 'perceptions' that seem to be independent of the senses. Various belief-systems proffer a conceptual framework for such experiences, seek to 'explain' them, and assign a meaning to them... usually involving supernatural entities of some sort. But it is the experiences that matter... NOT our interpretation of them. If there is one thing we can be sure of, it is that our interpretations are NOT 'true'.

tomfrh Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Sam is not just referring to self realization when he talks about spirituality. He states in many sources that he is referring to things beyond human understanding. This is textbook definition of spirit - immaterial intangible things with no scientific evidence for them. Sam has also stated that plain atheism and rationality is "depressing" and needs to be augmented with some sort of spitituality.

drekas2005 Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - God save all us sinners God save your blackest sheep God save the good samaritan and god save the worthless creep

Wallyrus Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - //"Sam has also stated that plain atheism and rationality is "depressing" and needs to be augmented with some sort of spitituality."// He doesn't say that atheism NEEDS to be anything.

tomfrh Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Then why does he argue so strongly for Eastern mystical belief systems?

tomfrh Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Sam Harris also believes in ESP, paranormal, reincarnation and xenoglossy!!. Even his own website admits to it! He says practitioners in these areas are "unfairly stigmatized", and that their claims are nothing like the claims of "religious dogmatists" It's amazing that he managed to con his way into the scientific skeptics inner circle...

Wallyrus Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Sam Harris is a buddhist, which is a non-theistic religion, and so he uses himself to illustrate the fact that theists do not have the monopoly on mystical experiences and awe that they claim. Talking about a philosophy that does not include a god in no way contradicts with ones atheism. Atheism just means you don't believe in god -- it has no bearing on what you DO believe.

qaplatlhinganmaH Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic, spiritual framework, developments of Buddhism, particularly Mahayana Buddhism, founded in India, which represents one of the two main branches of Buddhism.The Buddhist religious system was then adopted in Central and Northeastern Asia, from the 1st century CE, ultimately spreading to China, Korea and Japan.

qaplatlhinganmaH Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelt Graeco-Buddhism, refers to the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE

tomfrh Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - That's exactly my point. He believes in mystical experiences. He believes in spiritualism. He believes in ESP and reincarnation and karma. Yet despite all of that he considers himself a model rationalist!

Wallyrus Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Do you deny that people HAVE mystical experiences?

JohnLittle112993 Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - So why is abnormality a bad thing?

drekas2005 Says:

Nov 21, 2009 - Hey, we can't really be dumb if we're just following god's orders Well let's get serious, god knows what he's doin' He wrote this book here and the book says, "He made us all to be just like him" So, if we're dumb, then god is dumb and maybe even a little ugly on the side

xamot27 Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - you serious????

spacecowboy95 Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - He does not believe in esp or reincarnation or karma, he merely describes what evidence could arise that would give those claims merit. He never says that such evidence actually exists. read hs books. And your lumping "spiritual" with "supernatural", they are not the same things.

drekas2005 Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - @xamot27 Yeah Einstein. Are you?????

tomfrh Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - Sam Harris directly states that he is open minded to paranormal phenomenon. And if he doesn't believe in reincarnation, why then does he bother referencing xenoglossy studies in his books? He has been called to account by various skeptic societies for holding irrational beliefs. Read Meera Nanda's excellent "trading faith for spirituality" article. She wisely concludes that "Mysticism is not a rational alternative to faith".

spacecowboy95 Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - Open minded to the possibility of an after life, he does not use world like paranormal or supernatural because those are akin to magic. Anything which is evidence beased is no longer magical, its science. If xenoglossy turned out to be real then its worth investigating, simple. Dont misrepresent him by saying he actually believes in any of this stuff.

tomfrh Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - He does believe it. People who don't believe in reincarnation and xenoglossy don't write books outlining cases where it supposedly happened, they just ignore it.

spacecowboy95 Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - Could you reference a quote where he actually states his belief in xenoglossy and reincarnation? Or is this just something your assuming because those words happened to appear in his books?

tomfrh Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - He's not stupid enough to publicly come out and say "I SAM HARRIS BELIEVE THIS HORSESHITE", but it's pretty clear to anyone with half a brain that he's partial to it. Otherwise why would he bother talking about it?, and putting it in his books? and referring to "the evidence" and "the data" for it, and talking about the need to be "open minded" to it.

tomfrh Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - And if you actually want references, please read Meera Nanda's article, or read up on what James Randi has to say about him.

qaplatlhinganmaH Says:

Nov 22, 2009 - tomfrh have you watched the youtube vid on neuroscience and meditation and the mind/brain? Dan Siegel Google Talk