Is Sam Harris becoming a pariah for the anti-religious cause?

[Napoléon]

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This is just deflecting from Israeli responsibility again. This 'point', ironically comes straight from the IDF. Not biased at all.

[Mudhammam]

Does anyone else find a level of childishness in their propaganda that makes their shameless actions even more despicable than they already are?

[Thumpalumpacus]

So, are you denying any moral difference between murdering a single innocent person versus massacring a 1,000 of them? I'd say the latter is 1000x worse.

Assigning moral value based on sheer numbers ignores the fact that if Hamas had the same weapons, they'd likely try to rack up the same body count. In other words, in matters of intention, the two sides are equivalent; they differ only in efficacy, not morality.

Morality happens inside a man's head.

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I'd say it is worse especially when you have more control over the amount of people you're killing.

This is a fair point. I do agree that the Israeli overreaction, and that is what this is, has far too much body for the fig-leaf of "self-defense" or even "retribution" to cover.

It seems to me that more subtle, and less costly (in lives) countermeasures might be handy. But I'm no expert.

[Rob_W75]

Well Hitchens was a supporter for the invasion of Iraq? I was very disappointed at the time. If it wasn't for his hawkish views on the Middle East I would have lionized the man.

Anyway Atheism isn't an ideology (even though many theists claim it is). It is simply a disbelief in God(s). We cover the entire political spectrum from dirty commies to heatless libertarians.

[CapnAwesome]

Regardless of his opinions on Israel I have never really liked Sam Harris. He's always struck me as someone who doesn't really read opinions other than his own. There is also all his pretentious spiritual Buddhist mumbo jumbo. He should stick to talking to subjects he actually knows something about.

[Mudhammam]

So, are you denying any moral difference between murdering a single innocent person versus massacring a 1,000 of them? I'd say the latter is 1000x worse.

Assigning moral value based on sheer numbers ignores the fact that if Hamas had the same weapons, they'd likely try to rack up the same body count. In other words, in matters of intention, the two sides are equivalent; they differ only in efficacy, not morality.

Morality happens inside a man's head.

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You're dealing in hypotheticals, I'm dealing in actual body count, and yes, each addition compounds Israel's culpability and the rest of the world's righteous indignation.

[Jaysyn]

So, what do you think about IDF soldiers bragging about how many children they killed?

"I killed 13 children today"

Beyond indefensible.

[Napoléon]

This is another thing which makes me largely unsympathetic to Israel. The attitude of their general population is disgusting. I've seen a few articles now of Israelis celebrating Palestinian deaths. The irony of this is that many of the Jew's attitudes displayed here towards Muslims, are exactly the same attitudes the Nazi's had towards Jews.

[FatAndFaithless]

This is another thing which makes me largely unsympathetic to Israel. The attitude of their general population is disgusting. I've seen a few articles now of Israelis celebrating Palestinian deaths.

My favorite is when an MP said all Palestinian mothers should be killed.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/16/...n-mothers/

[Brian37]

Regardless of his opinions on Israel I have never really liked Sam Harris. He's always struck me as someone who doesn't really read opinions other than his own. There is also all his pretentious spiritual Buddhist mumbo jumbo. He should stick to talking to subjects he actually knows something about.

I am a bit miffed at his argument for blindly supporting Israel and his Buddhist woo does give me a lip twitch, but his books "The End Of Faith" and "Letter To A Christian Nation" do give lots of insight to the religious motivations of theists.