What in heaven's name has gotten into Sam Harris? The Los Angeles Times regularly lends its op-ed page to the atheist activist. In God's Dupes, Harris took advantage of the opportunity today to make a bizarre and slanderous accusation against American Christians.
He began by equating conservative Christians with Jihadist murderers: "Within every faith one can see people arranged along a spectrum of belief. Picture concentric circles of diminishing reasonableness: At the center, one finds the truest of true believers — the Muslim jihadis, for instance, who not only support suicidal terrorism but who are the first to turn themselves into bombs; or the Dominionist Christians, who openly call for homosexuals and blasphemers to be put to death."
I'm no theologian, not a Christian for that matter. But one obvious distinction that Harris ignores is that, whatever Dominionist views may be [and I am certainly not accepting as gospel, so to speak, Harris' depiction of them], no one has been attacked in their name. In contrast, in furtherance of their beliefs Jihadists continue to slaughter people around the globe, as the publication today of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession reminds us.
But Harris doesn't stop his slur there. He alleges that a massive Christian conspiracy is currently underway in America in which Dominionist Christians "by the millions, are quietly working to turn our country into a totalitarian theocracy." Unsurprisingly, Harris doesn't bother to offer any proof in support of his accusation.
At one point, Harris refers to true believers as "maniacs." He is living proof that when it comes to falling prey to manias, atheists are far from exempt.
Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
