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comment by OftenBen
OftenBen  ·  2793 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Faith in Reason: Sam Harris discusses Reason and Religion with Eric R. Weinstein

Thoughts?





blackbootz  ·  2793 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The first hour was breathtaking. The level of articulation and eloquence alone was enough for me to sit idly in my car and listen before going inside, but then the content. What exciting stuff.

The middle hour disappointed me. Weinstein just started bungling definitions and the conversation got stuck on his almost willful misuse of the word "faith". Faith on the part of a scientist or entrepreneur in a better if uncertain future, and pursuing that future despite the immediate setbacks, has next to nothing to do with faith in a religious text. And I felt Sam respond quite clearly to his misuse of the word. But for about the middle forty minutes, every time Eric sallied forth with a non sequitur his love for his own Jewishness, or the beauty of Turkish foods (patent tokenism?), as a defense of faith based culture, I would roll my eyes. I get the feeling that, while completely brilliant, Eric doesn't talk much with people who challenge him. It felt like Eric thought he was scoring points by being contrarian.

The last part picked up again. It's heartening to hear Eric chastise his/their own generation for failing to develop new theories and language to describe the world, better ideas and shorthand terms to access them quickly, instead of blaming stagnation or regression on outside forces. If only we all strove to take such ownership and put to rest finger jabbing.

I almost want to listen to it again for all breathtaking turns of phrases and exchanges scattered throughout. There were single sentences more content-dense yet seamlessly expressed than I ever hear in a normal day. Steelmanning? To summarize your opponents argument even better than he could? And then to dismantle that!? A truer standard for intelligent and honest debate could not be set.