Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Hemant Mehta has written a recent posting in which he describes in precise detail how words can be lifted out of context and then re-purposed as a weapon. It is a fascinating read, and to tempt you into reading it all let me give you a summary. Last January Sam Harris interviewed his friend and … Read more
I’ve often been astonished at the manner in which Sam Harris is demonised. Various claims abound about him being Islamophobic, racist, a bigot, etc… and yet when you dig into what he is supposed to have said, it often turns out to be a rather stark contrast to what is actually being said. To give … Read more
There was a recent discussion on CNN recently between Sam Harris and Islamic “moderate”, Dean Obeidallah. Here is that actual clip, it runs for about 10 minutes. The context is the prevailing issues regarding the very negative attitudes of many towards Islam, and of course this dialogue was triggered by Ben Carson’s declaration that a Muslim could … Read more
Kashif Chaudhry, an Ahmadiyya Muslim and also a doctor, has blogged a posting within the express tribune in which he disagrees with Sam Harris and also Bill Maher – translation – religious guy disagrees with vocal criticism of religious beliefs, and so this should not be a surprise, but there is a bit more to it than that. … Read more
A genuinely nice chap who is a member of the Ahmadiyya Islamic sect recently wrote an article entitled “‘Talibani Atheism’ & how it fuels Islamophobia”. For background context, the Ahmadiyya are a fringe Islamic sect that renounce all violence, which is of course praise worthy, and in fact they suffer a considerable degree of intolerance and discrimination … Read more
The observation is positively quite ancient and dates back rather a long way. A term often used to describe it is “the Epicurean paradox”. That says … “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able … Read more