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Sam Harris and Chris Hedges engage in a debate over the role that religion and politics play in Islamic extremism. Credit: Truthdig www.truthdig.com creativecommons.org
Religion, Politics and the End of the World (1/9)-Sam Harris
July 9th, 2010 
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Posted in Politics 
Tags: atheism, Atheists, Chris, Chris Hedges, christianity, debate, Harris, hedges, Iraq, Islam, muslim, Politics, religion, Religion And Politics, robert, Role Play, sam, Sam Harris, Scheer, Truthdig
@CondorDM In this debate, I also think Harris had better points. But on other subjects like American culture, watch Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion on fora TV. He’s brilliant.
@halneufmille Yes but that still doesn’t take away from the point i made. i also made a quick statement noting i have no beef with Chris, yes i know he is well spoken on some topics but he failed to handle this debate.
It seemed to me that, by end of the debate, Sam Harris was not doing too well. Sam seems like a guy who’s watched a lot of CNN, read lots of the New York Times and a bunch of books while formulating his philosophies and positions. Chris, conversely, has met the people and lived the experiences on which he forms his opinions and ideas. Also, Sam keeps going back to the same well – drawing amusing little anecdotes for us to show how ABSURD and immoral theism is. Time for a new crowd pleaser.
@phlumph99 Chris Hedges seems to me to be a well traveled individual who simply lacks the cognitive capacity to put his experiences into proper contexts.
For instance, in his eyes, the muslims who blow up bus loads of children in gods name are perfectly justified in their actions given how oppressed they seemingly are.
I’m an atheist, but I don’t think that all religious people are kooks. I respect Chris Hedges a lot more than Harris or Hitchens, both of whom were big supporters of the war on terror in Iraq, and continue to be to this day. Chris Hedges spoke out against the war in Iraq in 2003 and lost his job at the New York Times because of it. I have no question who holds the moral high ground. There are crazy atheists, just like they are crazy religious people.
@israelifaggot muslems also believe anyone who accepts jesus is going to hell, Christianity is clearly against other religions and false gods.
@party489, i dont get your point.
@israelifaggot “tell me why should a christian believe rastafarianism is on par with christianity and have an equal chance of being true?”
The question is, why should a rastarafi believe, that Christianity is on par with rastararianism and have equal chance of being true?
Or why should should a shinto think same about both?
@dietermauer, i dont think you understand what i was trying to say, i was trying to refute something silly sam harris said.
Education > Religion
u r hippocrit.ur poeple kill more ppl in a month than ignorent muslims in a year.we respect jews except the ignorent israeli, we respect islam but not the ignorent muslims.u r only viewing the ignorent muslims to make urself peaceful, why dont u show the other view of islam,be honest,there r at least 5 groups of islam,& u r only viewing opinions from a tiny number of poeple from a single group.the fool person who believes u and doesn’t look for the full truth,ask me and i” show the other views
Sam Harris completely exposed religion for what it is in this debate. The only thing Chris could do was insult and cherry pick every thing that Sam said. Even the dumb ass moderate turned out to be a fucking idiot at the end. I find it funny because you can really begin to recognize a pattern here, where simply these religious lunatics are gradually looking stupider and stupider.
Their defense mechanisms continue to diminish further and further. These lunatics reign of power of finally collapsing. The future of human kind does not belong to religion, it belongs to science.
@spacecowboy95 That’s not at all what he’s saying. What he’s saying is that oppressed individuals (not seemingly, but factually) will commit injustices whether or not they’re religious. Of course there is no doubt that religion adds something above and beyond that, but that’s when you have to ask about what the priorities are: to understand and appreciate the oppression as a major cause, and thus help alleviate it, or bomb the hell out of people.
@ForgotMyName3 I have respect for Hitchens and Harris on the subject of how nonsensical religion is, but both are very shortsighted when it comes to how it plays into international politics and conflicts. In that respect, Hedges is very right.
@TheStallion3 why would Harris and Hitchens be crazy for supporting the Iraq war? The US made clear that terrorists and allies of terrorists would be flushed out. what is immoral about that?
@TaeGaruma34
Iraq didn’t harbor terrorists, nor did they support them. Saddam Hussein was an asshole, but he was no threat to the US or the world. It was a waste of money, a waste of lives, it destroyed Iraq and created more instability in the Middle East. A region of the world that didn’t need it.
@MarvelsofaLifetime
I’m an atheist and think religion is a waste of time, but there are religious people who I find to be more intelligent and compassionate than the likes of Sam Harris. Chris Hedges, Cornel West, Bill Moyers. They are what I call rational Christians. MLK was another. They don’t believe that evolution is a fraud, they don’t believe in fate, but they seem to believe that Jesus was a good guy and I don’t have any problem with that. I do have a problem with bombing countries.
“Every believer should expect damnation purely as a matter of probability” What an cutting and insightful observation! At least when you play the lottery you don’t have to worry about damnation if you don’t pull the lucky number!
It’s always interesting to see Sam debate.
Moderator needs to keep his fucking idiot-hole shut.
Thumbs Up if you want to see Sam Harris ANd D’Souza
there is no religion-only mythology.
@MarvelsofaLifetime You realise that chris is an atheist, right?
@phlumph99 Amen, sir, sir. tis a pity that it’s easier to abandon god, than abandoning ego. most educated people (even those who go to church) could hardly be described as true-blue theists. mocking theism takes about the same mental agilty as mocking NAMBLA. only the large numbers of theists make it a viable option. a pity that many young atheists find a new god after leaving religion. I know kids at my school who act like sam is their older brother. Very, very sad.