BK calling out Sam Harris on his "sophomoric ignorance"

[AshvinP]

And from the beginning Sam Harris has articulated why 'new-atheists' is a horrible term. He's articulated why 'atheist' isn't his preference for framing his particular arguement against the notion of a God up in the Sky who controls things.

And, to boot, Sam Harris has explained in detail why he chooses to use the word spirit to speak of the spiritual experiences that he thinks are valuable and of which he feels humanity is in need of. We don't have to agree with him very much in order to abstain from misrepresenting him. Sam has made it very clear why he is open to idealism. The idealists who get so upset and constantly mischaracterize Sam have not made it clear why they do this. For some of us that's really interesting.

I have listened to several of his "debates" re God and spirituality, including one with Peterson, and there is no getting around that his view of all things spiritual is as superficial and shallow as one can get short of Dawkins "God delusion" angle. To be fair, I suppose I also think BK view is pretty superficial there, but not even close to Harris. And that just so happens to be the criticism BK is launching at Harris re idealism and understanding of spiritual practices.

[findingblanks]

All of the images loaded this time so it looks good. Simon can remain on standby. Thanks!

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I like the various ways Harris counters materialists with regard to objective values, always pointing out that it is only the degree to which we don't reduce experience to something else that we can even speak coherently about values. Oh, by the way, I don't think most helpful theorists are right about all that much. But they have bits and pieces that are great. Bernardo has many bits and pieces that we love.

And I think nobody is surprised that when idealists decide there is value in attacking fundamentalism in religion, they make most of the same arguements with regard to claims like, "I know God supports my violence in this context" and such. It only makes sense that there is great overlap considering that Sam Harris has only focused on knowledge claims with regard to a detached boss God. And I guess this is why he has so much respect for so many
mystics and contemplatives.

Even though I think Bernardo says some ridiculous things about the role metaphysics plays in ruining the world, I get the thrust of his points. Same with Sam. Those guys are two peas in a pod in so many ways.