[Buddha-l] Prominent Neobuddhist proposes religion basedblacklisting for government jobs

[Richard Hayes]

On Jul 30, 2009, at 6:18 PM, Curt Steinmetz wrote:

> I find Sam Harris' writings to be of great interest, and yes I have  
> read
> both End of Faith and Letter

You have much more patience than I. I started to read End of Faith and  
found it so strident and lacking in subtlety, wit or wisdom that I  
gave up after halfway through the second chapter. Perhaps I resisted  
the charms of his ranting because it reminded me so much of the way my  
father (who, because he is a professional geologist, is completely  
unqualified to talk about religion) rants and raves about every  
religion on the face of the earth (with special contempt for Judaism,  
Christianity and Islam). Of course, my dad has an excuse. He's a  
Unitarian. But what the heck is Sam Harris's excuse?

> Despite Harris many faults on of his great virtues, and one of the
> things that makes his writing so valuable, is that he is completely
> without guile.

You must also have great admiration for Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck...

> His says plainly and simply what most people with any
> capacity for self reflection would never dare say out loud, let alone
> put down in writing.

..and Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.

> and whenever I
> criticize him somebody always says, "oh, well, but have you read  
> his ...."

And some of us always say "Why bother to criticize such an obvious  
fool? And why do it on buddha-l?" But hell, I think I once said  
something critical about George W. Bush on buddha-l. So who am I to  
complain?

Richard