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Sam Harris rips the head of the National Institute of Health for pushing religious ‘bullsh*t’
Neuroscientist Sam Harris had some harsh words for one of the nation’s top scientists during a recent podcast.
The outspoken atheist said that Francis Collins, the current head of the National Institute of Health and the former director of the international Human Genome Project, was an example of an intelligent person who peddled religious “bullshit.”
--snip--
“Now, this is not to say that people don’t have great experiences that they want to capture in religious language,” Harris said. “But when you look at someone like Francis Collins, who is running the NIH, who is a medical geneticist and obviously a very smart guy who has made real contributions to science — but he is also a bit of a Bible-thumper, he’s an evangelical Christian. He believes in evolution, thankfully, but he also believes that immortal souls and free will were just downloaded onto the hard drive of only one species of primate at some point in history by an almighty God.”
“And when you ask him about the resurrection, he believes in the resurrection (of Jesus) and he believes in the coming resurrection of the dead, and he, I think, is sensitive to how unseemly it is for the head of the NIH to talk about these things, so when you ask him for details, he says, ‘Well, this is all very complicated and you should consult the work of John Polkinghorne and N.T. Wright.’ And when you consult their work, you get just pure madness. It is just a word salad, which is foisted on scientifically illiterate people by scientifically literate people for reasons that are patently emotional.”
“I think we should be even more critical in some sense of people like Francis Collins, the so-called nuanced religious person,” Harris concluded.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/atheist-sam-harris-rips-the-head-of-the-national-institute-of-health-for-pushing-religious-bullsht/
The outspoken atheist said that Francis Collins, the current head of the National Institute of Health and the former director of the international Human Genome Project, was an example of an intelligent person who peddled religious “bullshit.”
--snip--
“Now, this is not to say that people don’t have great experiences that they want to capture in religious language,” Harris said. “But when you look at someone like Francis Collins, who is running the NIH, who is a medical geneticist and obviously a very smart guy who has made real contributions to science — but he is also a bit of a Bible-thumper, he’s an evangelical Christian. He believes in evolution, thankfully, but he also believes that immortal souls and free will were just downloaded onto the hard drive of only one species of primate at some point in history by an almighty God.”
“And when you ask him about the resurrection, he believes in the resurrection (of Jesus) and he believes in the coming resurrection of the dead, and he, I think, is sensitive to how unseemly it is for the head of the NIH to talk about these things, so when you ask him for details, he says, ‘Well, this is all very complicated and you should consult the work of John Polkinghorne and N.T. Wright.’ And when you consult their work, you get just pure madness. It is just a word salad, which is foisted on scientifically illiterate people by scientifically literate people for reasons that are patently emotional.”
“I think we should be even more critical in some sense of people like Francis Collins, the so-called nuanced religious person,” Harris concluded.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/atheist-sam-harris-rips-the-head-of-the-national-institute-of-health-for-pushing-religious-bullsht/
18 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
It's ignorant drivel deserving of every smiley that can be used to ridicule it.
Go on, feed that last word compulsion. You know you have to, you need to.
And when you consult their work, you get just pure madness. It is just a word salad, which is foisted on scientifically illiterate people by scientifically literate people for reasons that are patently emotional.
I'm not surprised he's gone over the bend on things besides Islam. After all, I'm sure you remember his famous quote that if he could choose only one, he'd prefer to eliminate religion over rape.
What's that, you don't recall that? Well, here you go:
If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of either rape or religion, I would not hesitate to get rid of religion.
Saltman, Bethany (September 2006), "The Temple Of Reason", The Sun
Saltman, Bethany (September 2006), "The Temple Of Reason", The Sun
Ignorant drivel indeed.
Oh, and speaking of a last word compulsion,
I just know you and your last word compulsion to well.
Go on, feed it some more.
