The “arrogant claim” of Sam Harris that the universe just happened “by chance”

Published here, you can read the ongoing lively debate between Sam Harris and Dennis Prager, who hosts a nationally syndicated radio talk show. 

Here’s how Harris responded to the common claim that atheists are arrogant believers that everything “just happened”:

Atheism does not assert that “it is all made by chance.” No one knows why the universe came into being. Most scientists readily admit their ignorance on this point. Religious believers do not. One of the extraordinary ironies of religious discourse can be seen in the frequency with which people of faith praise themselves for their humility, while condemning scientists and other nonbelievers for their intellectual arrogance. You have done a fine job of this above. And yet, there is no worldview more reprehensible in its arrogance than that of a religious believer: The Creator of the Universe takes an active interest in me, approves of me, loves me, and will reward me after death; my current beliefs, drawn from scripture, will remain the best statement of the truth until the end of the world; everyone who disagrees with me will spend eternity in hell…

An average believer has achieved a level of arrogance that is simply unimaginable in scientific discourse—and there have been some extraordinarily arrogant scientists.

Prager argues here that God’s existence is proved by the alleged lack of moral fiber found in secular societies.

My argument is that unlike Judeo-Christian America, secular societies—generally meaning those of Western Europe—lose their will to survive (by not reproducing), and

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Shopping for Jesus

Could this headline ever run in a major newspaper?   

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Of course not!  Never is the alleged wall between the news department and the sales department of newspapers so low as during the holy season of senseless spending. 

Yes, I changed this headline to make a point.  The real headline disturbed me and I was struggling to effectively explain why.  I even considered an alternative make-believe headline: “In the name of Jesus, newspapers promote the buying of useless things, through purported news articles, to make their advertisers happy.” Both of my false headlines reflect the deep and disturbing reality of what drives modern day American Christmas better than the headline that actually ran.  Here’s the actual front page headline reporting the earth-shaking news that Thanksgiving Friday retail sales were brisk:

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The actual headline works hard to convince us that we the shoppers are heroes trying to conquer the challenge of shopping on a deadline or, perhaps, victims of the long lines.  I seriously question both of those characterizations.  I would say that many of us have been hoodwinked by fake news.

For the next thirty days or so, newspaper “articles” and television “news” reports will work hard to convince us to buy expensive and unnecessary consumer goods, allegedly to honor Jesus Christ.  The message is absurd.  Absurd, but powerfully seductive. 

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Dawkins on religion:”the process of non-thinking called faith”

Here is a link to a 2006 documentary called "The Root of All Evil? - Part I," narrated by Richard Dawkins.  In this elegantly written and presented documentary, Dawkins does not mince words.   He explores the seductive beauty of religion, as well as the damage that religion, especially fundamentalist religion,…

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Airline policy: Don’t allow men to sit next to children, because all men are deemed potential sexual predators

According to this article, some airlines are starting to enforce policies that children shouldn't be seated next to unrelated men, because you never know what might happen . . . Frances Kemp booked an aisle seat on a recent British Airways (BA) flight because she had a bad leg that…

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A haphazard list of some of Dangerous Intersection’s more memorable posts

We recently received this comment from Scholar:

Erich or Grumpy,

May I please have some more links to the discussions here at dangerous intersections which you have found to be most interesting, *must read*, or highlights in general.

Thanks,
Scholar

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I took Scholar’s request seriously and went back to review many of our posts.  I still can’t get over how many topics we’ve addressed in nine months, covering 592 posts! 

Rather than call these posts the “best of,” I would merely call them the more memorable posts to me, keeping in mind the triple asterisk that comes with the assembly of this list:  1) I simply didn’t have the time to review each of the posts again.  Therefore, this list is only representative, not complete.  2) It is difficult to determine any meaningful criteria on which to base such a list, other than (as I’ve already suggested) the idea that this list includes many of the posts I found memorable.  Other people will certainly have different ideas of what posts are worthy 3) Scholar’s request puts me in an awkward spot, given that I write for the blog. 

To the extent that I’ve included my own posts, then, it should be with the understanding that I am not trying to judge the writing so much as considering whether the ideas addressed are memorable to me, whether the ideas expressed therein seemed important or whether they moved me.  Here’s another way of looking at it:  if you want …

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