warrenwormholeMay 13, 2007 03:34 EST

Andrew, what I find astounding as I read the countless "refutations" of Harris catalogued by you and others is the obvious and blatant fact that you have not read "The End of Faith" closely enough to realize (or even acknowledge) the completely satisfactory treatment of all the points you raise in your article. Use the Bible as our source of morality (or the Quran, or whatever)? Which passages should we take and which should we cherry-pick? Why the absolute need for people who subcribe to your beliefs on morality to cherry-pick? Precisely because morality has been, IS and always will be subject to drift. During the millenia before Christ, Muhamed and the FSM I am sure you are willing to admit that we as humans were still faced with the difficult problem of morality. Thanks to an ever increasing reality-based view of the Universe, we move ever closer to jettisoning the baggage of religious dogma. Why? It's usefulness as an absolute reference on morality can only be taken seriously by an ever diminishing group of people that cling to the existence (unable to face the alternative) of a divine creator/suppier of absolute moral law. As Harris points out, there may be many reasons to cling to such beliefs, but those reasons have little to do with truth claims of such a being's existence nor of the need to have an externally imposed morality. The problem has been and is still is difficult-a secularly defined moral code-and one that might never be ultimately achieved. This does not constitute an argument for clinging to fairy tales.