What do you think about this quote?

Question

"Our situation is so uncanny. We have a world that has been shattered by literature, and I think we have to marshall an emotional response, the same response we would have if we woke up in a world tomorrow where all the violence in the Middle East, all the bloodletting, all the wars and threat of future war was borne of rival interpretations of the plays of Shakespeare, where the Jews like King Lear and the Muslims like Hamlet, and they're willing to blow themselves up and perhaps their children over the difference.

That seems like an impossibly bizzare world to live in, and yet that is exactly the world we are living in."

~ Sam Harris

Answer 1

This is OUR existence. This is OUR one in a million chance to come through. And, DAMN did we screw ourselves.

Answer 2

Excellent quote, though the analogy runs only so far.

For the bible and koran etc are not acknowledged as works of literature, and deal with assertions which at the heart, when analysed, are so often at such a distance from reality as to be beyond confirmation of falsification. Such is the nature of the "unseen".

The emotional investment people have therein though surely needs an emotional response.

I recently asked a question about conscience: can it be relied upon, or are there perhaps things we are so accustomed to as to seem ok, but yet are wrong and plainly bad when brought to attention and analysed critically.

I think that the atheist conscience needs stirring with the words of Sam Harris and the like, that we might waken to the noise of the evil religious 'fridge' which has slipped beyond our consciousness, and all of it's evils which therefore seemed innocous and/or customarily acceptable, can be condemned for what they are...

Answer 3

Unfortunately, shows VERY Little understanding of the
situation! Spirituality is more precious than "gold" - more than many today understand or imagine.
Spiritual truth is so vital, more vital than gold or knowledge.
The ironic thing is that you use Shakespeare as an
example and Shakespeare is great because of
the wisdom it contains that is based on an understanding of spirituality. It's interpretation one way or another does not
cause war, though, due to it's intent - to merely entertain as it follows suite with a certain depth of truth that many relate to as art.

Answer 4

Eh...it's not a good enough analogy to convince any of the combatants, I'm afraid. The various scriptures were not written with the same purpose as Shakespeare plays.


Though on the OTHER hand....have you seen some of the battles over who actually wrote Shakespeare's plays...?

Answer 5

Mohatma Gandhi

“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French… What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct… If they [the Jews] must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs… As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.”


,

Answer 6

i come across Steven Wright prices humorous. listed decrease than are a number of them i got here upon on line. “very last 365 days I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He replaced into utilizing a dotted line. He stuck another fish.” “All those who believe in psychokinesis strengthen my hand.” “ok, so what's the speed of darkish?” “How do you tell once you're out of invisible ink?” “help micro organism - they're the in worry-free words custom some human beings have.” “My condo replaced into robbed and each little thing replaced into replaced with correct replicas...I informed my roommate and he reported 'Do i understand you?'” “the day previous I informed a rooster to pass the line. It reported, "What for?"” “I Xeroxed my watch. Now I actual have time to spare.” “I placed on the spot espresso in a microwave oven and pretty a lot went decrease back in time.” “I wrote a music, yet i visit't study song so i don't understand what it it. each once in a lengthy time period i'd be listening to the radio and that i say, ‘i imagine i'd have written that’.” “I put in a skylight in my condo...the persons who stay above me are livid!” “My residing house is on the median strip of a street. you do not quite word, except I actual might want to leave the driveway doing 60 MPH.” “i purchased a self gaining expertise of record to study Spanish. I became it on and went to sleep; the record were given stuck. the subsequent day i might want to in worry-free words stutter in Spanish.” “I spilled spot remover on my canine. he's gone now.”

Answer 7

That is exactly why I tell people I am an atheist. Before 9/11 I didn't really think about it, but after that, I realized that religion and religious differences are too dangerous to ignore anymore.

Answer 8

"Shakespeare exists! And He wrote King Lear!!!!"

- A Fundie Shakesperian.

Answer 9

The first answer pretty much says it. It sounds like a piece of literature.

Answer 10

As it happens, I am rather partial to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"...
But I'm a Christian, I'm not going to go out and blow anyone up over it...
All I'm going to do is keep reading all my favorite bits to you, repeating them over and over again until you either see it my way, or be damned to you!!
(In case you missed it, there was real sarcasm there...but just to reassure you, I really am a Christian.)
;-D

Answer 11

Life imitating art?