Comments on: Superstition Kills http://www.ooblick.com/weblog/2009/10/18/superstition-kills/ All the etcetera that's fit to read. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:31:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: arensb http://www.ooblick.com/weblog/2009/10/18/superstition-kills/comment-page-1/#comment-179170 arensb Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:26:14 +0000 http://www.ooblick.com/weblog/?p=1126#comment-179170 Yeah, I think you're making the same point as Harris did when he pointed out that the simplest explanation for 9/11 was that the hijackers actually believed what they claimed to believe. That's a simple point, but it was hard for me to accept. Presumably something similar is going on in these church leaders' heads: yes, you're supposed to believe the Bible; yes, it says to kill witches; so presumably there's such a thing as witches; but presumably you're supposed to find some abstract, fuzzy interpretation of "witch", and not <em>actually</em> go out and kill people. Yeah, I think you’re making the same point as Harris did when he pointed out that the simplest explanation for 9/11 was that the hijackers actually believed what they claimed to believe. That’s a simple point, but it was hard for me to accept.

Presumably something similar is going on in these church leaders’ heads: yes, you’re supposed to believe the Bible; yes, it says to kill witches; so presumably there’s such a thing as witches; but presumably you’re supposed to find some abstract, fuzzy interpretation of “witch”, and not actually go out and kill people.

]]> By: Troublesome Frog http://www.ooblick.com/weblog/2009/10/18/superstition-kills/comment-page-1/#comment-179163 Troublesome Frog Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:52:39 +0000 http://www.ooblick.com/weblog/?p=1126#comment-179163 “I knew people believed in witchcraft over there but we believe in the power of prayer, not physically harming people.” This reminds me of the exchange between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan about "moderate" vs "fundamentalist" faith. Sullivan pointed out how great moderate religion is because they've discarded all the really crazy stuff as being clearly unreasonable. Harris countered by saying that they've made "faith" better by having less of it. I think that this is one of those cases. The people around here may "believe" in witchcraft, but they don't <i>really</i> believe in it. If it comes down to drowning somebody over it, common sense takes over. What you won't hear those people say is that they have less faith than the people who are willing to go all the way, but that's the reality of it. If faith really is a good thing, the notion that you can't have too much of a good thing clearly doesn't hold true. “I knew people believed in witchcraft over there but we believe in the power of prayer, not physically harming people.”

This reminds me of the exchange between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan about “moderate” vs “fundamentalist” faith. Sullivan pointed out how great moderate religion is because they’ve discarded all the really crazy stuff as being clearly unreasonable. Harris countered by saying that they’ve made “faith” better by having less of it. I think that this is one of those cases. The people around here may “believe” in witchcraft, but they don’t really believe in it. If it comes down to drowning somebody over it, common sense takes over.

What you won’t hear those people say is that they have less faith than the people who are willing to go all the way, but that’s the reality of it. If faith really is a good thing, the notion that you can’t have too much of a good thing clearly doesn’t hold true.

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