Sam Harris -- New Age Nutjob?
So I was reading The End of Faith, was a little bit into it when I ran across the following:
"There also seems to be a body of data attesting to the reality of psychic phenomena, much of which has been ignored by mainstream science. The dictum that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" remains a reasonable guid in these areas, but this does not mean that the universe isn't far stranger than many of us suppose. It is important to realize that a healthy, scientific skepticism is compatible with a fundamental openness of mind."(pg 41)
In the footnote to this passage he says
"There may even be some credible evidence for reincarnation."(pg. 242)
Well, I'm not going to let anybody accuse me of being narrow-minded, so I'm going to investigate all this crap, I mean evidence. I'm going to be sure and finish the End of Faith, including his mushy section on consciousness at the end. I'm going to follow it up by reading what I assume will be a counter-argument in certain parts of Stenger's God and the Folly of Faith, and then I will do my best to look into the evidence for this kind of thing.
I think this should be fun.
Don't worry, the masses of readers of my entry on Ecclesiastes have nothing to fear. I will continue to drive home the meaninglessness of your existence as powerfully as I can in the meantime.
"There also seems to be a body of data attesting to the reality of psychic phenomena, much of which has been ignored by mainstream science. The dictum that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" remains a reasonable guid in these areas, but this does not mean that the universe isn't far stranger than many of us suppose. It is important to realize that a healthy, scientific skepticism is compatible with a fundamental openness of mind."(pg 41)
In the footnote to this passage he says
"There may even be some credible evidence for reincarnation."(pg. 242)
Well, I'm not going to let anybody accuse me of being narrow-minded, so I'm going to investigate all this crap, I mean evidence. I'm going to be sure and finish the End of Faith, including his mushy section on consciousness at the end. I'm going to follow it up by reading what I assume will be a counter-argument in certain parts of Stenger's God and the Folly of Faith, and then I will do my best to look into the evidence for this kind of thing.
I think this should be fun.
Don't worry, the masses of readers of my entry on Ecclesiastes have nothing to fear. I will continue to drive home the meaninglessness of your existence as powerfully as I can in the meantime.
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