Why Sam Harris Is Wrong About Religion & Islam

How Sam Harris misidentifies the problem of Islam as a content problem rather than a structural problem. This is an example of the differences between content and structure in analysis.

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[motorhead]

I’m afraid this is horribly wrong and it contains a ludicrously arrogant mind-reading of Harris’ motives in criticizing Islam. For starters, it actually does matter what is in the Quran and it does matter specifically what people believe. Beliefs inform actions. The people who are blowing themselves up actually do believe that they will get to paradise as a result. The Iranian mothers who during the war between Iran and Iraq sent their teenage sons out to clear minefields with their lives actually believed in the metaphysical principle of martyrdom. They really believed their sons were going to paradise and if they didn’t believe this, they wouldn’t have been goading their children into suicidal war tactics.

Sure there are other factors that lead to violence, and Harris admits this every time the point is raised so I’m not sure why you’re speaking like he doesn’t. Violence is overdetermined, but specific beliefs that need not be held can lead to violence that would not occur otherwise. Consider Jainism, a religion whose core tenet is non-violence. If Jains were relocated to the Middle East they wouldn’t start blowing themselves up in crowds of children. When Jains are oppressed they don’t resort to violence. Non-violence is not a core tenet of Islam. In fact you could argue that one of the core tenets of Islam is in fact holy war. So no, you cannot argue that the problem is merely structure and that the ideological content is irrelevant. The content is extremely important. In many cases it is the only thing that makes sense of the behavior. Why do people who cartoon the prophet Muhammad get murdered? What is the structure that explains this? I’ll tell you why they get murdered. They get murdered because of the sincerely held belief that depicting the prophet is a blasphemous and vile insult against Allah.

Now you can argue that the problem is “a lack of ethical and spiritual development” rather than the content. This is just a trick. It is not a matter of arguing whether the content is the problem or the level of ethical/spiritual development is the problem. The problem with Islam is that the ideological content of Islam is itself spiritually and ethically underdeveloped. The only way for a Muslim to become more ethically and spiritually developed is to become less and less Muslim. He or she must hold less and less closely to an honest reading of the Quran and the Hadith to become more ethically and spiritually developed. This is the problem.

Moving on to your immature and arrogant charge made personally against Harris. You claim that the real reason he criticizes Islam is because he wants to prop up his own culture as superior. Why then has he spent more time and written more criticizing Christianity than Islam? He has actually focused more on the problem within his own culture than the problem of Islam, despite Islam being of greater threat to global civilization than Christianity is at this moment.

Harris claims he thinks Islam is more dangerous because it contains more dangerous content. Even if you think he’s wrong as you clearly do (and I have illustrated above why in fact you are wrong and Harris is correct) why wouldn’t you just be content to say Harris is more critical of Islam because he really thinks what he says he thinks about the content being worse? Why would you argue that he really has some ulterior motive that you are somehow aware of? It’s so bizarre. You think Harris is lying about believing that the content matters? You think he’s just saying that when he really believes the content doesn’t matter, so he has an excuse to portray his own culture as superior? You claimed that his whole ego revolves around believing that his own culture is superior even though his spirituality which is central to his life is lifted straight out of another culture, that being Indian culture? To put it bluntly, what the fuck are you on? This whole argument is so ill-conceived and immature, and you deliver it with such unwarranted self-assurance. This is a huge swing and miss. If you have the courage of your convictions I recommend you have Harris and bring this criticism directly to him. The worst part of this all is that Harris has already directly addressed every single criticism you levied in this video. This was such an unremarkable display of intellectualism. If you want people to take you and your ideas seriously I recommend that are more careful to actually know what you are talking about prior to speaking.

[frialsharefabdo]

Thank you Leo 💚🙏
I am a Muslim live in Syria but i live my life and see the world through my spiritual eye so i can see clearly the true and the essence of our problems and how most peoples are miss understanding reality in general and miss interpreting the real meaning of the whole religion .
" You cannot feel connected with others when you have disconnected from yourself ." ~ Jacqui Olliver
" The dark ages still reign over all humanity, and the depth and persistence of this domination are only now becoming clear . This Dark Ages Prison has no steel bars, chains, or locks . Instead, it is locked by misorientation and built of misinformation . Caught up in a plethora of conditioned reflexes and driven by the human ego, both warden and prisoner attempt meagerly to compete with God . All are intractably skeptical of what they do not understand . We are powerfully imprisoned in thes Dark Ages simply by the terms in which we have been conditioned to think ."
~ R . Buckminster Fuller

[yotk]

So a man that his entire career and academic knowledge is about Islam is wrong but you are right?

[rhuttner]

Sam Harris constantly quotes things from the Bible and Quran, with zero context, and with no relevance with the whole narrative. Like slavery, which is a dumb thing to bring up, because slavery being a completely different practice then, than it is now.

[thepopdog]

Say what you will about Sam's political opinions, his meditation app is great

[nabsnabster]

The middle east rose and fell, so its not due to climate, animals, etc. It is political, countries playing chess, colonialism, and eastern countries got put into checkmate during the last two centuries. What Iraq used to be, historically, with the first public library, and then after the Mongols, and then decimated by the U.S. Invasion: death & destruction, so then poverty, then lack of education which effects awareness, consciousness.

[samann]

Video length 4:20. Anyway, please make a video on 420, why it's good or bad...

[alicewonderland]

Leo your home country is at war, what do you have to say about this ? Interesting to hear your voice on this .

[mkb]

Very interesting video brother. Respect from a Muslim

[silencebeing]

Thank you for the insight but i will argue that you don't understand his point Sam goes deeper on religion as a dogmatic tool. God is not religion

[donfaryarghara]

I don't think the lack of moral development is because of the geopolitical factors. Christians (western countries) have that lack of moral development too. I mean the degree of immorality of Europeans and Americans are much higher than middle easterners. The massacres and barbaric imperialism of Europeans and Americans demonstrate much worse immorality than middle easterners.
If islam was never made, eventually all countries in middle east would've had the same religion as ancient Iranians (Zoroastrianism) which would've made middle easterners far more spiritual than Christians.
Therefore, Islam is actually a bad teaching. just like christianity and judaism

[minto]

Why do the human species have this great need to believe in a God ?

[MrZz]

Huge fan of Leo, but this is such a gross oversimplification of Sam Harris' point of view and arguments.

[joshboston]

he does not "reduce all that to bad phrases within the Qur'an". This is 100% a strawman.

[MM-dnlw]

The world would have been a heaven without all religions.

[chasingexcellence]

Sam Harris is impressed by Richard Dawkins 🥴

[amervito]

the big problem with sam is that he never quotes from Quran or hadith about what he claims about islam, zero evidence and big misinterpretation

[ADUAquascaping]

Hmmm weak argument bud. You're incorrect. Islam has been at war since its inception. This is the geopolitical issue of the region. Science also has evidence based truths. Their religion first and foremost shapes their attitudes, behaviors, and worldview. Keep denying the data. Persia and Sumeria were plenty wealth before Islam. The region is also home to the fertile crescent, which is where agricultural began. You just said a bunch of nonsense.

[NATE]

Correct at all can teach a little bit you cannot be dissonant to anything our dogmatic in any perspective that's it

[muliefriend]

Sam Harris is wrong about many things.