Sam Harris' Statements Are Not as Accurate as One Might Wish

Mostly I should just try to ignore Sam Harris. But some things demand a response. And today a moronic fan of Harris shoved this under my nose: Harris wrote on his blog, recording what he said to Ben Afflack in their notorious dust-up last year:

What do you think would happen if we had burned a copy of the Koran on tonight’s show? There would be riots in scores of countries. Embassies would fall. In response to our mistreating a book, millions of Muslims would take to the streets, and we would spend the rest of our lives fending off credible threats of murder. But when ISIS crucifies people, buries children alive, and rapes and tortures women by the thousands—all in the name of Islam—the response is a few small demonstrations in Europe and a hashtag.

Terry Jones and PZ Myers each made a great big show of desecrating Korans and they're both still alive, neither one has had to go into hiding.

And the response to ISIL has included military action by more than 60 countries. The United Nations is holding them responsible for war crimes. Amnesty International has accused them of ethnic cleansing "on an historic scale."

And liberals aren't complaining about this response. Those naive liberals Harris and Maher keep complaining about, who are standing by and watching ISIL's atrocities and doing nothing -- those liberals exist only in the minds of nuts like Harris. They don't exist in the real world.

And, as I've pointed out repeatedly on this blog, most of the people who are fighting and dying in the war against ISIL are Muslims.

Michael Ruse and I (we're atheists) would like people to know that atheist doesn't necessarily mean New Atheist.

Saying That There Are No Peaceful Muslims Is As Stupid As Saying That There Are No Violent Christians

Or no Jews who eat shellfish. Or no Hindus who eat beef. Or no Buddhists who don't meditate.

It's pretty freakin' stupid.

And -- I've said this before but it bears repeating -- making ISIL's actions about Islam as a whole is pretty insulting to Muslims in general, and especially insulting to most of the people who are actually in combat against ISIL. Most of those people are, of course, Muslims.

Bill Maher asks, "Why do they hate us?" without bothering to be specific about who "they" and "we" are. Lots of people are always trying to tell Bill why some Muslims hate some Christians, but Bill's not listening. If it's not about Islam as a whole, then to Bill, we're naive liberals.

What do I, an autistic American atheist raised in a Protestant Christian family, have in common with the vast majority of those of the world's Muslims who know who Maher is? I've never opposed the fight against ISIL in any way, and Bill Maher frequently pisses me off.