Problems of Religious Moderation

Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan are having a dialog on Beliefnet about religious moderation -- Harris challenges Sullivan's belief that there is a distinction between religious moderation and fundamentalism.

Harris takes a fairly rigid view of religion, so that taking the Bible seriously can't be anything other than taking it literally. He finds it difficult that one can be religious and integrate doubt into one's faith viewpoints.

He writes:

Religious moderates—by refusing to question the legitimacy of raising children to believe that they are Christians, Muslims, and Jews—tacitly support the religious divisions in our world. They also perpetuate the myth that a person must believe things on insufficient evidence in order to have an ethical and spiritual life. While religious moderates don’t fly planes into buildings, or organize their lives around apocalyptic prophecy, they refuse to deeply question the preposterous ideas of those who do. Moderates neither submit to the real demands of scripture nor draw fully honest inferences from the growing testimony of science. In attempting to find a middle ground between religious dogmatism and intellectual honesty, it seems to me that religious moderates betray faith and reason equally.


Ah, but Sam, we who are of Moderate to Liberal views do question the claims of our extremist kin. And while there is more than just a few extremists out there, very few act on their extremism. I think that when it comes to Islam, as opposed to Christianity, that we need to see this as part of a broader cultural transition. In the end, though it might take years, a Reformation of sorts is likely to take place. But as for challenging the extremist, I do so myself -- calling for them them to face up to the way they read Scripture and live their faith. We recognize that one can take the Bible seriously without necessarily taking it literally. I don't believe that in finding that middle path we are betraying faith or reason, but seeking follow both in a way that seeks the transformation of the world. Now, do I believe that one must be religious to be good, no I don't. My question though is this, where does this idea of good come from? I have my sense of truth on this, where does your truth derive?

I look forward to seeing how Andrew Sullivan responds!

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