Sam Harris on the so called 'Golden Age' of Islam
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- čas přidán 4. 04. 2016
- During an 'Ask Me Anything' episode of his podcast Waking Up, Sam Harris answered the following question posted on reddit:
"We are always hearing about how Iran was a relatively more liberal nation before Islamic regimes took over. We hear about how the problem of radical Islam is relatively new in the world and that, historically, Islam was not as violent. If we grant that this is true, does this make religion more or less scary, considering that apparently these violent interpretations can arise suddenly and possibly without even historical context?"
Check out the full podcast here: www.samharris.org/podcast/ite...
The greatest invention the muslim world ever produced was the time machine. It has transported modern counties it conquered into the 7th century.
He is underplaying the "Islamic" golden age. There wasn't only advancements in optics. There was also advancements in astronomy, math and engineering. Let's be fair here when talking about history. But this of course has nothing to do with Islam like Islamic apologists claim.
whatever flaws you pointed out in Hinduism is very correct and i am a Hindu and everybody is fighting against evil ideology of caste in Hinduism,everybody appreciates British for abolishing Sati which was very evil but still much to do, Western values are highly appreciated in India by Hindus and i see desire in majority of Hindus to develop like west. When Europe was developing Hindus were fighting Islamic terrorists and now also we are fighting it, but still we are developing slowly.
Top shelf as usual. Play this podcast in 1000 years (if we are still around) and people will question how this type of logic was different from 1 +1 = 2
Sam had better be careful. Telling the truth about violent thimblebrains is not conducive to living to old age.
The comment about "zip codes" has to be one of the most devastating, incisive things I've heard Sam say.
alot of ignorance and sweeping unfounded statements on India and Hinduism. The middle east, Egypt, India and China was way ahead of Europe in ancient times, upto around the 15th century India and China were the two most powerful and richest economies by far. For India things went downhill from the time the Colonists came, it was plundered and looted, the ecomony stalled for 250 years, it is backward now granted but slowly making its back. In terms of Sathi you need to read the ancient scriptures, sathi is a voluntary act of a person so consumed with grief that joins the departed (it can be a relative, it can be a friend or it can be a man or woman). There was already a local movement against this practice which was restricted to certain cases and involved a handful of cases, not a common practice it was already dying down, it did happen to be more common that a wife would voluntarily or involuntarily committ this practice in the cases highlighted by the British, which was do with their own designs to put the impression out there that it was some kind of civilising force and the practice was commonplace which it was NOT. The Rig Veda itself does not even talk of women or men, it talks of a human soul, the scriptures themselves were put together by both women and male priests at least 3500 years possibly upto 10000 years ago. India in ancient texts talked about gay rights, transgender communities and about people being born into a sexuality, thousands of years something some in the west dont accept. India was far advanced to the west for thousands if you actually did some objective impartial and thorough research you would quickly establish that, for the 250 years it has been far behind and still is. By the way the only hindu scripture that talks of caste is the manu smitri and there are doubts about its authenticity and claims it wad put together by the brits to discredit hinduism, certainly would not surprise me as the caste system and discrimination became more entrenched during british times the classic divide and rule
I'm Arab and atheist... but Islam put us on the map
Sam Harris telling it as it is :)
You'll never hear this man on the BBC.
Funny this man refers to the 'so called islamic golden age' without mentioning it was mostly founded on works of earlier Indian mathematicians. The only part he mentions Hinduism is the 'caste' system, but nothing about our ancient civilization? Then acts like westerners are gods gift, but never mentions these 'white people' were mostly of Germanic descent and where living in forests as tribals not too long ago. But then he talks about christainity in full glamour, but ofcourse not mentioning its dark side like the killings of natives, forcefull conversions, the pagan and pagan temple destructions, pedophilia.
The Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire (orthodox christian) was the most technologically advanced nation (tied with China). One of the factors that led to the Renaissance was when the Greeks fled to the rest of Europe after the Ottoman Empire, whose canons were actually European in design and invention, conquered them. The Caliphs happened to conquer the most technologically advanced portions of the Roman and Persian Empire (Alexandria and Baghdad). The Golden Age of Islam is a myth constructed by a book called The talisman.
I am not a religious person. I am not identified with or support any religion. I'm not a philosopher, not a historian, not a real researcher. I am an engineer, and I do have an interest in history.
Sometimes I think you can't have the Renaissance without something nasty like the Dark ages. This is part of human history, it's the ebb and flow of progress and backwardness.
Wow. So Sam...you don't think algebra was a significant contribution to human thought? I am not lying to myself and you seem so unable to see nuance that it is astounding.
Sati doesn't have roots in Hindu texts. It would be like saying that drinking beer in a pub after the death of a family member in the Irish community is a catholic practice.
I always put Sam's story as follows:
1:15
I'm so thankful to live in the age where more people are calling religion for what it is........BS!
Each and every time I listen to Sam Harris I learn something.