Kurdish church of former Muslims, now Christians.

This is very interesting. And inspiring. I wonder what Sam Harris would say about this. The problem I have with weighing the value of religion is, that it is much more difficult to quantify the good it does than quantifying the harm. All this of course, utterly separate from the truth or falsity of the claims a given religion makes.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

3 Replies to “Kurdish church of former Muslims, now Christians.”

  1. Sam Harris is a clear thinker and he favours a secular approach in his world view. However, he does prefer one religion to others and it is Jainism, which he describes as the religion of peace (not to be confused with the other more well know religion of peace). He makes the point that since the fundamentals of Jainism are peaceful the crazier you get as Jain the less anyone has to worry about you as you tend to spend your days watching out for ants etc just in case you may step on one if you are not careful. Even one leader of the animal rights movement who has a national role high profile role in the States is a Jain and a law professor. Needless to say he is not a fan of the ALF. So Sam sees all this and concludes that Jainism is the real religion of peace. I am not sure what his specific take on Christianity is though. For my part I am a pragmatist and I see nothing wrong here. It is a step up from Islam which is the garbage and is has more akin to Nazism than other more genuine attempt by man to understand reality via the medium of religion; which takes the fundamental and correct stance that there is a mystery to existence.

  2. “The problem I have with weighing the value of religion is, that it is much more difficult to quantify the good it does than quantifying the harm. ”

    Dear God. Can’t you separate the theological claims of a religion from its ethical preachments? Are you so obsessed with the provability or disprovability of assertions about supernatural affairs that you can’t tell the difference between them and exhortations to particular patterns of behavior? Or is it just too much like work?

    No religion’s theology can be tested by rational mechanisms. That’s the nature of theological claims. But a religion’s ethical code can be evaluated for its wholesomeness: i.e., whether people prosper and live happier lives when they choose to follow it. Try it out; it’s easier than you think.

  3. Francis:

    I’m sorry I didn’t explain myself better. I was attempting to eliminate the supernatural claims of religion and simply quantify the value of it to a given group of humans based on rational criteria. I suspect that Christianity may fare better than it’s critics might expect or desire to be seen, perhaps even more so than Jainism, as pacifism tends to lead to extinction in the real world. Ask any Tibetan.

    I have no obsession with the provability of supernatural claims. I am content that they cannot be proved. If they could, they would be natural by definition.