Recently watched a terrific debate with Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Rabbi David Wolpe, and Rabbi Bradley Artson. The debate subject was Is There An Afterlife. Here's the link if interested. http://bit.ly/dHrAja I am not usually impressed by religious arguments but these rabbis were indeed impressive. If I had encountered such tolerance, open mindedness, and wisdom among religion believers I would probably have a much better view of religion. I don't find their arguments sufficiently persuasive but I like how they present them. If we could find a way to spread this tolerant, reason-based view there would never be anyone who wanted to kill or die because of what they believed and the world would be a much safer, better place.
Of course, Hitchens and Harris were in excellent form as well. In Hitchens' opening remarks he made a serious point and got laughs from the audience by noting that while we all might expect the tap on the shoulder and the word that the party is over, even worse is to be told that you have to leave but the party will go on without you. The fact that he has esophageal cancer and is presumably dying from it lends his words a certain weight that adds to his very considerable eloquence. I liked his comment on the "stuff" we are made of being stardust, or nuclear waste, depending on how you look at it. That is information I knew from various sources although I had never heard it referred to as nuclear waste. Accurate enough, though. He often skewers the religious concept of original sin by noting that it stipulates we "are born sick and commanded to be well". One of his best zingers was to note that we all know what Muslim men get in the afterlife (the 72 virgins) and said "You know what the women get? They get their husbands back"! Appreciative laughter followed.
Sam Harris gave the statistic that 9 million children die every year before they reach the age of five. Presumably to make one wonder just how the deaths of 9 million children every year fits into the divine plan of a benevolent god. He also mentioned and gave a variation of the simulation argument popularized in some circles by the philosopher Nick Bostrom that basically lays out a plausible scenario whereby we could all be simulated people living simulated lives running on hard drives of the future. Harris noted the simulation could be being run by Mormons or some other religious group and therefore we might actually see Jesus coming to end everything.
Rabbi Artson made the valid point that often the worst of religion is compared to the best of science. Incidentally, it is gratifying that both rabbis can speak of physics theories such as parallel universes and multiverses or note that quantum mechanics and relativity can not be made to work together but do perfectly fine on their own.
I thought Rabbi Wolpe went a little adrift when responding to Sam Harris' point that most religions made incompatible claims about the nature of reality and the afterlife. He agreed that religions made incompatible claims and then went on to relate the story of a recent attendence at a religious conference where many religions were represented and told of how they all agreed there was a great deal of shared core similarity. It seems a weak argument to acknowledge incompatible claims and then say there is a core similarity.
At any rate, a very interesting discussion and one any thoughtful person should greatly enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment