Sam Harris | Author | Big Think - On Good & Evil

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Here is the next part of my series on responding to video comments from atheist Sam Harris. In this particular video he gives his views on what good and evil are.





Sam Harris bring up the fact that theists charge that relative morality is unable to set up a standard that protects everyone. Yet he never answers the charge other than to assert that humans are capable of figuring out what is right and what is wrong. HE basically says that whatever the majority believes is good is good and what the majority says is wrong is wrong. Sounds great unless you are a Jew living in Nazi Germany in the 1930's and early 1940's. Or a Black man living in the southern United States from 1607 to...well...now. IF there is no absolute authority no absolute standard then why was Hitler wrong to kill six million men, women, and children for no reason besides the fact that they were Jews? Why is wrong to take a black man and lynch him, tar and feather him, for no reason other than he is black? How do you answer that without some authority to back you up. Why is our morality that says these things are wrong more correct than those who would do these things? Harris provides no answer.

What does he give us instead? He gives uz an attack on the Bible. He argues that it gives us no ethics to aspire to or live up to. This is not true. I'll give one scripture passage that shows what I mean:

43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. - Matthew 5:43-45

This is not one something we are born or find easy to do. This is the standard the Bible calls Christians to live up to. Harris then uses the atheist's favorite argument that the Bible is immoral because it condones slavery. The thing is that the idea of "Slavery" cause so much guilt and pain, especially in America. It conjours images of black men, women, and children being sold like animals; women being raped; and people standing naked on auction platforms. Is this the image we should have of what slavery was in the Old Testament? No. Not at all. I'm going to be preparing a post to fully explore this point.

In the meantime, I want to point out that Harris was lying about how the white slaveholders were theologically aligned with the Bible. Yes the New Testament says  "Slaves, obey your masters."

 ⁵Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. ⁶Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. ⁷Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, ⁸because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. - Ephesians 6:5-8

Fine, but if the white slaveholders were not cherry picking slaves like the man above would not have had endured such brutality!

 ⁹And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him. - Ephesians 6:9

Harris is either lying or ignorant. Take your pick.You however can't endorse his conclusions. Jesus did not come to just free slaves but to free all of us because we are slaves to sin,

Sam Harris | Author | Big Think