Aslan's view of religion is pretty vapid. For him, religion is just cultural identity and shared memes. In that regard, I could claim that YouTube memes represent a district religious language and culture.
Religion must be practiced to be religion. If you don't attend church, don't read or believe the scriptures, don't perform or adhere to any religious rituals, but merely call yourself a Christian or Muslim, how is this an interesting intellectual viewpoint on religion?
Aslan said he can't believe atheists would say people don't take their religion seriously, but Church attendance in the Western world has been going way down. And while lots of people claim to be Christian, few of them attend church regularly, pray, read scripture, or follow rituals. That's what I'd call not taking your religion serious, and simply treating it as a sports team. That's what Harris means, if you're totally ignorant of Christianity, and call yourself a Christian, it's about as relevant as me calling myself a 49'ers fan, because I grew up in SF, but barely ever watch football.
Moreover, Aslan said he doesn't care what people think, only what their actions are. Really? If we polled and found that 95% of Americans think gays and blacks should be subjugated and beaten, but are not acting on it yet, we have no cause for concern? I'd say gays and blacks should have every reason to worry, because people's beliefs lead to biases, which lead to actions, like discrimination and real violence. That's why polls of religion people worry people like Maher and Harris.
When white, southern, republicans are polled, or something is said on Fox news, progressive commentators, the very liberals calling Maher and Harris bigots, have no problem painting the whole South as a bunch of ignorant, racist rednecks. The Young Turks have covered lots of worrying polls about repugnant views of conservatives, and have no problem generalizing in those cases. Let's be honest, this has nothing to do with the religion itself, and everything to do with the feeling that those criticizing Islam are engaging in a form of cultural racism against economically and politically repressed groups.
The idea that you need to be an expert on world religions in order to criticize obviously immoral, bad, or wrong ideas is absurd. No one needs to be an expert to point out much of the flaws in the Old Testament of Quran, especially those that disagree with modern science, or those that disagree with modern ethics.
It doesn't matter what people though 'truth' was before the Enlightenment, I don't care that 5000 years ago, had not only bad science, but bad logic. It doesn't justify the applicability of the beliefs to todays world and it doesn't hand-wave away the flaws in the books. As Cenk said in the interview, why do we need this language based on known wrongs when we can create a new language based on post-Enlightenment ideas. As Harris points out, one can be spiritual without needing organized religion or scripture. Humans create spontaneous shared language and culture _all the time_ effortlessly to share experiences. We don't need Christianity, Judaism, or Islam for that, they offer nothing special.
I've lost more respect for Aslan after this interview than before. When he speaks to the causes of violence, like professor Cole, I agree. I don't think Islam is the root cause of terrorism, ISIS is simply 'weaponizing' it, when it's real root is the loss in power and position the Sunnis took post-Iraq war. That's perfectly agreeable, and Harris I think is only partially right about the effects of religion. It makes an effective weapon, but weapons don't start wars, politics does.
But on religion, Aslan is completely non-sensical. He has created a vacuous theory of religion so wishy-washy and malleable, that he can himself claim to be a Muslim, even though he acknowledges he's a non-believer.
If that ain't taking your religions seriously, than what is.
Aslan's view of religion is pretty vapid. For him, religion is just cultural identity and shared memes. In that regard, I could claim that YouTube memes represent a district religious language and culture.
Religion must be practiced to be religion. If you don't attend church, don't read or believe the scriptures, don't perform or adhere to any religious rituals, but merely call yourself a Christian or Muslim, how is this an interesting intellectual viewpoint on religion?
Aslan said he can't believe atheists would say people don't take their religion seriously, but Church attendance in the Western world has been going way down. And while lots of people claim to be Christian, few of them attend church regularly, pray, read scripture, or follow rituals. That's what I'd call not taking your religion serious, and simply treating it as a sports team. That's what Harris means, if you're totally ignorant of Christianity, and call yourself a Christian, it's about as relevant as me calling myself a 49'ers fan, because I grew up in SF, but barely ever watch football.
Moreover, Aslan said he doesn't care what people think, only what their actions are. Really? If we polled and found that 95% of Americans think gays and blacks should be subjugated and beaten, but are not acting on it yet, we have no cause for concern? I'd say gays and blacks should have every reason to worry, because people's beliefs lead to biases, which lead to actions, like discrimination and real violence. That's why polls of religion people worry people like Maher and Harris.
When white, southern, republicans are polled, or something is said on Fox news, progressive commentators, the very liberals calling Maher and Harris bigots, have no problem painting the whole South as a bunch of ignorant, racist rednecks. The Young Turks have covered lots of worrying polls about repugnant views of conservatives, and have no problem generalizing in those cases. Let's be honest, this has nothing to do with the religion itself, and everything to do with the feeling that those criticizing Islam are engaging in a form of cultural racism against economically and politically repressed groups.
The idea that you need to be an expert on world religions in order to criticize obviously immoral, bad, or wrong ideas is absurd. No one needs to be an expert to point out much of the flaws in the Old Testament of Quran, especially those that disagree with modern science, or those that disagree with modern ethics.
It doesn't matter what people though 'truth' was before the Enlightenment, I don't care that 5000 years ago, had not only bad science, but bad logic. It doesn't justify the applicability of the beliefs to todays world and it doesn't hand-wave away the flaws in the books. As Cenk said in the interview, why do we need this language based on known wrongs when we can create a new language based on post-Enlightenment ideas. As Harris points out, one can be spiritual without needing organized religion or scripture. Humans create spontaneous shared language and culture _all the time_ effortlessly to share experiences. We don't need Christianity, Judaism, or Islam for that, they offer nothing special.
I've lost more respect for Aslan after this interview than before. When he speaks to the causes of violence, like professor Cole, I agree. I don't think Islam is the root cause of terrorism, ISIS is simply 'weaponizing' it, when it's real root is the loss in power and position the Sunnis took post-Iraq war. That's perfectly agreeable, and Harris I think is only partially right about the effects of religion. It makes an effective weapon, but weapons don't start wars, politics does.
But on religion, Aslan is completely non-sensical. He has created a vacuous theory of religion so wishy-washy and malleable, that he can himself claim to be a Muslim, even though he acknowledges he's a non-believer.
If that ain't taking your religions seriously, than what is.
Sheesh.