It shows that Collins doesn’t really believe in evolution. Since consciousness is the software running on the hardware of the evolved brain. It appears that Collins thinks a magic man came along and added a magical ingredient to add consciousness.

Just curious, why Buddhism gets a a pass, and Christianity doesn’t in Sam’s world.

Possibly something to do with a significant difference in core tenets. There are no superstitions in accepting the 4 Noble truths and following the 8 fold path. Read the Dhammapada and then the Bible…..chalk and cheese.

Where in Christianity is there anything approaching the Kalama Sutra?

I can assure you that there are plenty of atheists who practice Buddha Dharma.

For those interested I recommend the short The Buddha M Carrithers and Buddhism without Belief – by ex bhikku (monk) Steven Batchelor.

“Harris says very clearly what makes him ’so uncomfortable about his nomination’ and it’s emphatically not just that he believes in God and prays. It’s right there in black and white, words on the page, easy to understand ….

Harris explains his worry very clearly. He quotes Collins on god and morality, then [asks]:
Why should Dr. Collins’s beliefs be of concern? There is an epidemic of scientific ignorance in the United States. This isn’t surprising, as very few scientific truths are self-evident, and many are counterintuitive. It is by no means obvious that empty space has structure or that we share a common ancestor with both the housefly and the banana. It can be difficult to think like a scientist. But few things make thinking like a scientist more difficult than religion.

He then expands on why. By no stretch of the imagination does it boil down to ‘he believes in God; he prays.’

You can read the entire entry at:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/notes.php

You mean… they’re a bit… bovine?

If you say so, Mehdi.

The Second Law of the Thermodynamics is not violated anywhere. Leaving aside the fact that this law doesn’t actually deal with “order and disorder”, you can make the analogy that the appearance of life on Earth is like the clumps in your oatmeal. They appear although you sprinkled the oats over the milk carefully to fall randomly.

In any case, if you don’t get the analogy, think that by the way you understand the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the fact that galaxies exist would also be violating the law.

You are talking nonsense. Grow up.

Your making my point. Christians have tried to reconcile science with their faith, wrong or right but at least there were efforts made by Aquinas, Newton etc- whereas, Eastern mystics that Sam Harris has a soft spot for, have no where near the same tradition.

Help me here. Harris can’t stand Christianity because of its morals and its superstitution, so everything about it is bad BUT……BUT….Buddhism we are supposed to ignore its superstition and bad baggage and focus on its positive aspects.

Just curious, why Buddhism gets a a pass, and Christianity doesn’t in Sam’s world.

With good reason. Everywhere, lunatic bronze age supersitition is on the march, and mental retards who hold bronze age supersititions seem to think they’re above criticism.

Care to explain the collapse of the wavefunction to us dumb swills?

I go with quantum decoherence myself.

P.S. what Unity says, with knobs on.