Salt, like the pure consciousness, dissolved in water(creation), can only be known after tasting the water. An uneducated person, can be the Knower of the Absolute.

Clearly there is more to it than logical analysis More than words and thoughts…

Enjoyed reading the excerpts of the talk by Harris.

As Sam so well articulates, i have always felt meditation is no less “science” that what we popularly refer to as “science” today. It’s just that todays science needs all the paraphernalia .. telescopes, microscopes etc. But, meditation needs a different kind of instrumentation — ones mind, body and heart.

These two — the regular “science” and meditation are just two different ways of knowing. One involves thought. The other involves cessation of thought.

I’ve tried to clearly differentiate between these two ways in this blog article:
http://chaitanya1.wordpress.com/ways-of-knowing/

I pretty much agree with what Sam says. I especially don’t like the “Brights” label that some have come up with and which Dan Dennett etc. are supporting. Out of necessity however you have to offer a label sometimes. In such situations I like the label “free thinker”. People generally are startled when they hear that and want to know more which gives me a chance to explain what it means.

The fact is, these guys don’t know jack about theology. If you want a good atheist writer, I would recommend Freidrich Nietzche or David Hume. These were men who studied in a religious tradition and were trained in theological thought and from there arrived at conclusions about the nature of the world that denied the existence of God. Openly so in the case on Nietzche, and covertly in the case of Hume.

Dawkins and Hitchens, however, take their cues on theology not from highly accomplished thinkers like St. Augustine, Aquinas, and Plato. They’re basing their understandings of religious belief on idiots like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and the Wahabbists.
Any intelligent religious scholar would trounce them in debate which, I suppose, the reason they often find themselves debating people like Dinesh DeSouza rather than actual theologians. People who don’t end up on TV because their opinions are far too rational, moderate, forgiving, and well-thought out to grab attention in a world where you have to “bleed to lead.”

Harris, having a background in philosophy, likely has had some study of Plato and Augustine under his belt, but what is his beef with metaphysics? He seems to betray some sense of theistic belief as simply being a silly superstition. For most people, it is, but for many people it is something arrived at not simply as an article of faith, but based on intense and rigorous rational reflection.

Let’s just rank religions, and hope people flock to least worst, rather than the worst.