Episode 25: Qur’an Burning, Religiosity vs Prosperity, an Interview with Guy P. Harrison

The disgusting suggestion that the Qur’an should be burned in protest on 9/11 is discussed, as is the prospect of higher prosperity among non-theists, and our very own Daniel sits down for an interview with author Guy P. Harrison, who wrote 50 Reasons People Give For Believing in a God and has a new book out entitled Race and Reality.

Listen below and let us know what you think using the comments section or using the Contact link at the top of the page, we try to respond to all feedback directly, and thanks!

 Episode 25 [1:01:38] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (252)

Our Lost Decade

A fantastic recap of the Western/Middle East global conflict was published recently in the Belfast Telegraph. Though it’s content is not strictly religious, this conflict does provide context to recent religious developments:

Did 9/11 make us all go mad? … How fitting, in a weird, crazed way, that the apotheosis of that firestorm nine years ago should turn out to be a crackpot preacher threatening another firestorm with a Nazi-style book burning of the Koran.

Or a would-be mosque two blocks from “ground zero” – as if 9/11 was an onslaught on Jesus-worshipping Christians, rather than on the atheist West.

…

And God? Where does he fit in? An archive of quotations suggests that just about every monster created in or after 9/11 is a follower of this quixotic redeemer. Bin Laden prays to God – “to turn America into a shadow of itself”, as he told me in 1997 – and Bush prayed to God and Blair prayed – and prays – to God, and all the Muslim killers and an awful lot of Western soldiers and Dr (honorary) Pastor Terry Jones and his 30 (or it may be 50, since all statistics are hard to come by in the “war on terror”) pray to God. And poor old God, of course, has had to listen to these prayers as he always sits through them during our mad wars. Recall the words attributed to him by a poet of another generation: “God this, God that, and God the other thing. ‘Good God,’ said God, ‘I’ve got my work cut out’.” And that was just the First World War…

Hitchens responds to ‘Ground Zero Mosque’

Hitchens on Anderson Cooper, taken from CNN

In the midst of battling cancer, Hitchens (who had a recent article about him in the Times of London) commented on the conflict over the Mosque placement “at Ground Zero.” His article can be found on Slate, here. An American Atheist also covered the topic some time ago. Hitchens had a compelling interview recently on Anderson Cooper 360.

Update: President Obama recently defended the mosque’s placement saying:

This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”

A full article can be found here.

Update #2: Roger Ebert wrote a fantastic article about Hitchens in the Chicago Sun Times.

Muslim Center likely to be built at Ground Zero

This story has been around for a while, but I felt the need to comment on it. I can understand how some people might feel upset about the Muslim Center (a rather large one at that) going down next to Ground Zero. However, it is my opinion that as a country we need to treat equally (by means of official standpoint, not necessarily within the mind of the individual) all faiths and lack thereof. Just because people are upset, and find it perhaps inappropriate is not sufficient justification for disallowing the Center to be there. For those who think that it is insensitive to juxtapose these buildings, perhaps some good can come out of it. I, while supporting the Muslim Center’s placement, feel that 9/11 was due to the basic premises of religion which allows for religious extremism. Perhaps this tension is good, as it highlights the resentment many feel towards religion. It is this resentment that can fuel a movement to minimize the impact of religion. The role of religion needs to be weakened, however, not through bureaucracy but by changing the minds of the people who wanted to place the Center in the first place. I hope that in my lifetime that ‘mosque’ is placed, and later removed as it becomes a quaint remnant and no longer has any attendants. We must respect the right of people to have a belief, but we do not need to respect their belief. What do you think about the Muslim Center’s proposed location? Feel free to comment in the field below.

Further reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/nyregion/26muslim.html