Atheism on Talk Radio...

Sam Harris has masochistic tendencies as indicated by his constant appearances on right wing talk radio. Harris has appeared on The Laura Ingraham show, most famous for its 7th grade approach to talk radio, Dennis Prager, an overly thoughtful gentleman who pines over inane hypothetical moral decisions, and most recently Michael Medved, an ultra sharp liberal turned conservative.

Harris showed well on Medved's show, however Michael seemed to have a curious question for Harris. "Why can't we accept each others diverse beliefs and still try to have healthy debate on our most important issues?"

This "can't we all just get along" philosophy is rampant in our society but, it seems to me, is profoundly negative. Harris explained that when talking about said important issues, dealing with insanity is not healthy discourse but Medved pressed him to argue whether he "respected" religious people. Harris explained that he can respect any man, but refuses to respect religious ideas so when a man is completely wrapped up in his religious ideas, he is difficult to respect.

Or so I surmised from Harris's short soundbites allowed on the show.

I commend these talk shows for dealing with Atheism head on, unfortunately the debate always reduces to whether the atheist can just "get along" with the theist and go on his way. I would argue that in a nation that is so sick with superstition, that sort of benign worldview is what's ailing us.

BqTM