A Quote From Atheist Sam Harris Regarding Romney

[David Sklansky]

"the Mormons think Jesus is going to return to earth and administer his Thousand years of Peace, at least part of the time, from the state of Missouri. Why does this make Mormonism less likely to be true than Christianity? Because whatever probability you assign to Jesus’ coming back, you have to assign a lesser probability to his coming back and keeping a summer home in Jackson County, Missouri. If Mitt Romney wants to be the next President of the United States, he should be made to feel the burden of our incredulity. We can make common cause with our Christian brothers and sisters on this point. Just what does the man believe? The world should know. And it is almost guaranteed to be embarrassing even to most people who believe in the biblical God."

Is he right?

[Bedreviter]

So his argument is so weak that he actually have to make stupid comments as "Jesus will keep a summer home in Jackson County"? And is it likely that Romney will change US politics to accomodate an eventual return by Jesus in Missouri?

JFK did not let the Vatican decide what he should do as president, and is there any reason to believe that Romney will allow his affiliation with the mormon Church to be any different?

[Low Key]

I've heard people ponder about what GWB's presidency in regards to Iraq would be if he didn't 'know' there was a heaven the troops were going to for simply being Americans. I.e. would he be less likely to let them die needlessly and bring them home sooner?

Is he right on which point, David? That the world should know what he believes? If he's running for president, yeah, I think so. I think there's too little known about Mormonism, really, and the same goes for Scientology. These secretive religions really get me.. They seem like they have something to hide. (Well, Scientology does have some things to hide)

[pvn]

[ QUOTE ]
"the Mormons think Jesus is going to return to earth and administer his Thousand years of Peace, at least part of the time, from the state of Missouri. Why does this make Mormonism less likely to be true than Christianity? Because whatever probability you assign to Jesus’ coming back, you have to assign a lesser probability to his coming back and keeping a summer home in Jackson County, Missouri. If Mitt Romney wants to be the next President of the United States, he should be made to feel the burden of our incredulity. We can make common cause with our Christian brothers and sisters on this point. Just what does the man believe? The world should know. And it is almost guaranteed to be embarrassing even to most people who believe in the biblical God."

Is he right?

[/ QUOTE ]

Is he right about what? The probability of mormon beliefs being correct as compared to "regular" christian beliefs? Yes. That mitt should be made to feel the burden of our incredulity? There is no "should" here. That it's embarassing to "most" people who beleve in Jehova? Probably.

[Bedreviter]

"I.e. would he be less likely to let them die needlessly and bring them home sooner?"

I dont think Bush think they are dying needlessly, so hard to answer that question.

[Low Key]

Right, good point, I forgot about that.

[AlexM]

No, he's not. Mormonism isn't any more or less believable than Christianity.

[AlexM]

[ QUOTE ]

Is he right about what? The probability of mormon beliefs being correct as compared to "regular" christian beliefs? Yes.

[/ QUOTE ]

No.

[AWoodside]

As a general rule when it comes to positions that are not supported by evidence, the more specificity involved the less likely the claim is to be true. I don't know enough about Mormonism to say confidently whether it makes more or less specific claims than Christianity, but I would guess Harris is right based on anecdotal personal experiences. That being said, the probabilities are so small and difficult to determine exactly in either case that it seems like he's splitting hairs for some sort of emotional effect.

[JayTee]

I don't know if he is technically right, but the difference is so small that it's not worth mentioning. Also, his talk about common cause with our christian brothers really turns me off to him.