Sam Harris Waxes Rick Warren
Aaron Kinney Permalink
4 comments
Newsweek sat down recently with Sam Harris and Rick Warren for a friendly fireside chat about everyone's favorite fictional character, God.
In short, Harris waxed Warren something wicked. The fat burly preacher couldn't hold a candle to Harris. Warren got the last word in, and promptly served his Christianity something special with a horribly ignorant Pascal's Wager appeal. It is truly glorious to see Warren do almost more damage to his own fairytale worldview than Harris did.
But perhaps my favorite part of all is early on in the debate, where Warren proudly displays his ability to see faces in the clouds passing over his head:
RICK WARREN:
I see the fingerprints of God everywhere. I see them in culture. I see them in law. I see them in literature. I see them in nature. I see them in my own life. Trying to understand where God came from is like an ant trying to understand the Internet. Even the most brilliant scientist would agree that we only know a fraction of a percent of the knowledge of the universe.
Yes, Warren. We all see a butterfly when we spill coffee on a piece of paper and fold it in half. But some of us have come to realize that it is merely a coffee stain. We even developed a word to describe this phenomenon: Pareidolia. Hopefully, someday, you will realize this too.
I can only imagine what kind of bozo Rick Warren would come off as if he were in another field of study, like, say... astronomy!
Crossposted at Kill The Afterlife.
Post a Comment
4 Comments:
Aaron,
Thanks for posting this. I haven't read the Newsweek article yet. But I look forward to doing so. Just the fact that it's a chance for Warren to expose his nonsensical unmind is exciting enough.
The quote you grabbed from the article is classic "I see what I want to see" pareidolia, as you point out. Warren might as well have said this:
I hear the voice of God everywhere. I hear it in my mind. I hear it in my thoughts. I hear it in the things I read and in the things I see in the world. I’ve heard it all my life. Trying to understand where this voice came from is like an ant trying to understand the internet. (It’s all beyond my understanding, but I accept it as knowledge anyway.) Even the most brilliant scientist would agree that we only know a fraction of a percent of the knowledge of the universe. (Which is a big enough gap of ignorance that I could postulate anything I imagine about the universe and call it truth!)
So, Aaron, as you point out, we know how Warren would do on a Rorschach Test. Show him a series of ink blots and his reaction to each one will be the same: “God!”
Incidentally, if you want to read an article which examines Warren's method of successful evangelism as presented in his own best-selling books, Mister Swig's Rick Warren: Master Assimilator for the Christian Collective is excellent.
Regards,
Dawson
Thanx for the link Dawson!
Yea, Warren is classic nutzo. The only problem is that the majority of people in the world utilize his same method of nuttery to justify believing in anything they want.
Interesting that all you guys can only call names and don't seem to be able to put forth a rational argument. The problem with blogs like this is the lack of civility. This attitude is killing our culture. Why not try another tack, be positive?
Oh dear. Poor itow cwistian gets his panties in a bunch when someone calls a delusional fucktard a delusional fucktard. They get even madder when you call their handlers mercinary egomaniac control-freaks. Wake up and smell the bullshit, or sleep on and believe things are true because you want them to be; evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. We call a bullshit artist a bullshit artist. Your dissatisfaction with this reality is irrelevant.
<< Home