Sam Harris' understanding of Christianity

[tonychanyt]

My understanding of Christianity and Dr Sam Harris' views are quite different.

Sam Harris said:

I say this rather often. We could improve the Bible in 5 seconds. That's problematic for the claim that it is the best book really on any subject.

I do not claim that the Bible is the best book on any subject. I am not aware of anyone who makes that claim. The Bible is not a science book, a history book, or even a theology book, in the modern senses of these subjects. Harris has an unbalanced view of the kind of book the Bible is.

He said:

Ask yourself: What do we do with astrologers? How we have kept the astrologers off the Supreme Court? … By and large, astrologers are not acquiring vast responsibilities in our society. … We stop listening to them.

Right. Good thing too.

That should happen when people begin to express their certainty that Jesus is coming back within their lifetime, etc. etc.

I too ignore Christians who believes Jesus is coming back within their lifetime. It's not that I don't believe them because they are like astrologers.

Harris compared Christian beliefs with those of astrologers. They are not similar kinds of religious beliefs. I will not compare them. The fact that he did showed his profoundly unsophisticated understanding of Christianity. Astrology fell under the category of divination and fortune-telling, which were prohibited because they sought guidance outside of God.

Is 47:

12 So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

These astrologers observed the stars and made monthly predictions on one's fate. It was a form of divination. God would burn them up.

Harris said:

It's possible for a person to close their eyes and use their intention in a certain way, such that they no longer feel separate from the universe. They say they were just me a moment ago; all the sudden, there's just the world. That is an experience that is replicable that we can all have. Many of us, I'm sure, have have had. Most of the people, most of the time have had these experiences in the context of religious tradition. They have interpreted them by the light of their religious tradition.

Emphasis added.

Now, he reduced religion to some sort of shamanistic experience. That's a naive perspective.

Harris' understanding of Christianity is profoundly unsophisticated.