I am reading and reviewing books of @SamHarrisOrg this December, with the extra time available after work. First book I read is following.

The book is written by the neo-atheist Sam Harris. I am a passionate sunni Muslim. I would like to learn and review some of his work, and judge them from my personal view based on Islamic theological perspective. It shall be interesting because as you would know, the neo-athiests
want to abolish religions altogether and suggest a world where things are based on science and logic. How is that coherent and how is it relavent? Let's see for ourselves. I would like to thank the local Muslim handles and atheist handles who actively participate in discussions.
I would advice everyone to stick to a more academic discussions and not to deviate the discussion with mockery of Islamic and atheistic beliefs.
This book talks about lying and it's ill effects on the individuals and at large on the society. In a nutshell here are some of the gists of the book. The book basically identified specific ways in which lying is detrimental and why we should avoid lying.
So, on one hand one might say, look here we see the morality being drawn from science. Here Sam Harris has identified the lying and it's dangers without any religious text. Does this notion applies? Can we say science can define morality?
I would say, it's too early to conclude anything of that sort yet, as this is just one of the cases of objective morality, where we say lying is bad. I agree that the information provided in the book are convincing that lying infact is bad, and should be avoided.
In this case, Harris did not refer to any religious text about how they define lying, obviously because he wants to ban religions and show that we don't need religion to live as good people. Do we agree to this? Again. It too early to conclude anything of this sort. Let's just
Talk about lying only for instance. Does religious scripture define lying smiliar to how Sam Harris has defined? On a basic level, it does. On an advanced level, religious scriptures does not detail out sections of it just for lying, which is not really essential, because the
Scriptures idenify on a general level things as being moral or not. God orders how lying is bad and should be avoided, via his book and via prophethood. So fundamentally both sources identity them as being wrong. Sam Harris is an author, and just because he is a neuroscientist
Does not make all of his work scientifically accurate. Infact the book as a whole is philosophical. There is no single grounded theory. But so are many written work. So as a good philosophical work, I would definitely think the book will help people, convince them to stop lying
And make them better people. On the other hand, I would also think that the effect the same concept brings about via religious scripture is far more effective and obligates people from stop lying. Now, believers and unbelievers, both lie. All the time, people lie. The difference
Is people who are follow strict religious guidelines will lie less and probably are more honest people. A work written by an author does not gurantee or obligate anyone. It just is no better than me writing a book named 'opposable thumbs'. It does not obligate poeple to use them.
The conclusion : this is a good book. It encourages people to stop lying. It motivates one to be honest person. So does religious scripture, and the effect is huge from religion, as people are obligated to obey God and his messengers rather than learning a 'nice to have' opinion.
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I've gotten a few questions about this, so let me clarify and provide as much helpful information as this medium will allow.

To begin, both of my parents are MBA's and are assertive. They taught us four kids to be assertive. 1/x


Honestly, what's the worst a publisher can do, say no? If the worst that can happen is a rejection email (and believe me I've gotten ALOT), then it's pretty "safe" to at least ask.

But there were tricks that I learned about getting books from publishers. 2/x

The 1st was to request exam copies. I was a very part-time adjunct faculty for an online-only seminary in the UK. I designed two classes for them and requested books to consider as assigned reading for the classes. I still do this, since I'm full-time teaching/administrating. 3/x

The second was to become an approved/recognized reviewer for journals--it doesn't matter which ones. Thanks to a previous professor I'm a reviewer at the website for a research center. And through nothing but email, I'm a frequent reviewer for 3 journals (JESOT, JHS, RRT). 4/x

This is a helpful approach. When you know exactly where the review is going to be submitted and you know that the journal's review editor wants the review, then (in most cases) the review editor's job is to contact the publisher and make sure you get the book. That's it. 5/x
People have wondered why I have spent 3 days mostly pushing back on this idea that "defund the police" is bad marketing.

The reason is, it's an example of this magic trick, the oldest trick in the book.

It's a competition between what I call compass statements. And it matters.


There are a lot of people who think "defund the police" is a bad slogan.

But it's a directional intention. A compass statement.

The real effect of calling it a bad slogan, whether or not intentional (but usually intentional), is to reduce a compass statement down to a slogan.

Whenever there is a real problem and a clear solution, there will be people who benefit from the problem and therefore oppose the solution in a variety of ways.

And this is true of any real problem, not just the problem of lawless militarized white supremacist police.

There are people who oppose it directly using a wide variety of tactics, one of which is misconstruing anything—quite literally anything—said by those who propose solutions—any solutions.

They'd appreciate it if you mistake their deliberate misrepresentation for confusion.

The reason they'd appreciate if if you mistake their deliberate misrepresentation for confusion is, it wastes time that could have been spend on the solution trying to persuade them, with different arguments and metaphors or solutions.

Which they intend to misconstrue.

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I hate when I learn something new (to me) & stunning about the Jeff Epstein network (h/t MoodyKnowsNada.)

Where to begin?

So our new Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's stepfather, Samuel Pisar, was "longtime lawyer and confidant of...Robert Maxwell," Ghislaine Maxwell's Dad.


"Pisar was one of the last people to speak to Maxwell, by phone, probably an hour before the chairman of Mirror Group Newspapers fell off his luxury yacht the Lady Ghislaine on 5 November, 1991."
https://t.co/DAEgchNyTP


OK, so that's just a coincidence. Moving on, Anthony Blinken "attended the prestigious Dalton School in New York City"...wait, what? https://t.co/DnE6AvHmJg

Dalton School...Dalton School...rings a

Oh that's right.

The dad of the U.S. Attorney General under both George W. Bush & Donald Trump, William Barr, was headmaster of the Dalton School.

Donald Barr was also quite a


I'm not going to even mention that Blinken's stepdad Sam Pisar's name was in Epstein's "black book."

Lots of names in that book. I mean, for example, Cuomo, Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen - all in that book, and their reputations are spotless.