Thank god some atheists are clever enough to recognize that because several beliefs may be equally untrue, they are not necessarily equally damaging. Sam Harris has made this point before and in many ways, my favorite being, “The problem with Islamic fundamentalism is the fundamentals of Islam”.
Here he does it again. H/T EDL Buck and others.
Independent:
Sam Harris, the prominent atheist, has hit back at charges of Islamophobia levelled by fellow non-believers – insisting that some faiths are more “mistaken” than others.
In a lengthy riposte posted on his website, Harris maintains that some religions, including Islam, deserve closer scrutiny because they pose a greater threat.
The American author was responding to two articles, on the Salon.com and Al Jazeera websites, reported in The Independent on Saturday, accusing him of becoming openly Islamophobic rather than equally critical of all faiths.
Harris says in his response: “Not all religious doctrines are mistaken to the same degree, intellectually or ethically, and it would be dishonest and ultimately dangerous to pretend otherwise. For instance, a dogmatic belief in the spiritual and ethical necessity of complete nonviolence lies at the very core of Jainism, whereas an equally dogmatic commitment to using violence to defend one’s faith, both from within and without, is similarly central to the doctrine of Islam.”
