David James Hoff

Prof. Baker
POLS 1100-010
October 21st
An Attack on Sam Harris An Atheist Manifesto
1. My main argument towards Mr. Harris manifesto is this: God is perfect, his followers are
not. It even talks about this in the Bible itself. There are many references to the Pharisees in
Jerusalem and how they were very religious and followed by the rules. Regardless of their
efforts, Jesus disliked them because they valued the rules more than they valued people. This
example perfectly mirrors todays Christians, or most of them. On homosexuality for
example, most Christians hate them and say that they are going to Hell. But if they read the
Bible like they would any other textbook, they would then realize who the author was talking
to, exactly what action this author was referring to, and the differences of language between
then and now. With all of this realization, the Christians of our time would then conclude
that homosexuality is no big deal.
2. When Sam Harris attacks moderate Christians, I believe that he is using the Black/White
Thinking logical fallacy. Harris claims that fundamentalist Christians are better than
moderate Christians because fundamentalists have a God-centered answer for every little
thing that happens, good or bad, on this Earth. Harris claims that you either need to take the
scientific explanation for everything or the fundamentalist explanation, with Harris there is
no in-between. That is false; believing in science and God can be done, although it can be
rather difficult at times. For example, during Hurricane Katrina, Harris argues that a logical
person would have seen the weather report, packed up their family, and drove out of town
ASAP. That is logical, the fundamentalist approach is not too logical. The fundamentalists
believed that they could just pray their way to safety and that God would protect them
because they are good people. One moderate view is that a logical person could have seen
the weather report, packed up his family, and drove out of town praying the whole way
thanking God that he and his family lived in a time where technology was so readily available
for times like this.
3. Finally, when Harris compares religious individuals to a hypothetical lunatic who believes
that there is a huge diamond in his yard the size of a refrigerator, he is using the reductive
logical fallacy. Not all of Christianity (or any other religion for that matter) can be summed
up in one paragraph. These religions with their traditions and history have shaped our
society for what it is today. Although these religions have conflicting views with science, and
although there have been religious individuals in the past who have done very wrong things,
theres no logical reasoning to sum up all of a religion for every lesson, character, and rule
that it has to offer in a simple example of a lunatic looking for a diamond. Most of religion is
based on faith, people believe in their god because they experience something life changing
or they have an epiphany about a critical question that has been bothering them for days.