patrick.net

Dan8267 says

The scene you referenced is from The God Debate II: Harris vs. Craig. I've included the whole video below.

Here is a transcript. Sam Harris refutes the argument that atheists "are closed to some remarkable experiences that religious people have."

That argument seems a bit silly anyway, because religious people are missing out on what they might otherwise be doing with the time they spend in church, for example they could be reading a new book instead of the same one over and over again. My favorite response though is the list of weird foods. Years ago, the NY Times had an interesting article on the evolution of weird foods, including fish left to rot in soil for a few days. The hypothesis was, human populations evolved with these foods as a way of identifying in-group and out-group, like in WWII American soldiers trying to identify friend vs foe would ask questions that only Americans would know the answers to. (For example, Who won the world series five years ago?) Religion serves the same function, i.e. a set of beliefs that no one else would know or accept. People missing out on the joy of a particular belief system are in the same position as people who miss out on the enjoyment of rotten fish.

Thank you Dan and curious.

freak80 says

thunder,

That wasn't my quote, that was from heraclitusstudent...

Oops, my bad

Atheists don't believe in themselves.

carrieon says

Atheists don't believe in themselves.

?

freak80 says

carrieon says

Atheists don't believe in themselves.

?

Evidently we're gods. I guess that explains why all those women I've bedded kept saying "Oh god!". Don't worry, I won't let it go to my head.

hehhehheh

marcus says

Jumping back to the macro level, I'll just share an observation. On the one hand, I do not think that quanum mechanics applies on the macro level. On the other hand, I'll just share this. It's easy to accidentally collapse Dan's wave function. That is, once you start thinking he's an asshole, it becomes true

Dan8267 says

The speaker's name is Sam Harris. He is a neuroscientist and science author.

Some people believe in threads resurrection.

Btw, while we are here, Sam Harris has written a book called: " Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion".

Just thought Dan would want to read that.

Heraclitusstudent says

Btw, while we are here, Sam Harris has written a book called: " Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion".

Just thought Dan would want to read that.

From the Amazon.com description and synopsis on the back cover, it sounds like Harris is using the term "spiritual" to mean psychological, not supernatural. If so, then essentially he's espousing the same ideas that I do.

However, this is not what the public thinks when they hear the word "spiritual" even though many of them use the word spiritual as a marketing term for psychological.

Make no mistake. I find the natural world literally awesome, awe-inspiring. In fact, I find the natural world to be far more incredible than fools who believe in the supernatural, precisely because I don't need to give credit to the supernatural for what nature has done by itself. This is true respect for nature. To invoke the supernatural is to disrespect nature by stating that it is incapable of doing what it has accomplished. I sincerely doubt that Sam Harris would disagree with this.