A Simple Rule

[DeistPaladin]

If you read my post correctly, I pointed out that users of this very board have written such things, not Harris.

Fair enough.

Sam Harris generalises and he doubled down on it in an interview he gave Cenk Uigur from the Young Turks. I watched it, uncut, three hours long in hopes he might correct the "All muslims" thing, which he didn't.

I'm not an expert on everything Sam Harris has ever written or said. The message from Harris as I understand it is that beliefs effect our actions. As we believe, so we will act. This seems to be the core message in everything of his that I have read or heard.

Since as you believe is how you will act, it follows that some beliefs might be very dangerous.

Different religious people believe different things, no question. But when we evaluate whether or not a specific religion is dangerous, we need to examine the religion itself and what its teachings are. If people really believe religion X, what kind of behavior can we expect?

I hold that moderates are barely relevant to that discussion if they are at all. It's the radicals that take a religion's teachings to heart and center their lives and actions around it. Moderates take a more nuanced approach, interpreting their scriptures and other sources abstractly, often frankly concluding what they already believe anyway, or at the very least being heavily influenced by their own conscience and modern sensibilities. Radicals are less likely to be moved to moderate their beliefs by modern science or modern sensibilities, sticking to their religious beliefs without such compromise.

Show me the radicals and I'll show you the religion.