A Reply to Sam Harris Regarding Unscientific America

I have always deeply admired the way Sam Harris argues a point with passion. I happen to disagree with him about Francis Collins, but I have to credit the force of Harris's take-no-prisoners approach with regard to all forms of "faith"--even when I think it goes too far. In the process of taking on Collins, Harris also argues against us and against Unscientific America--and for some time, I have been meaning to answer him on this. Life intervened until now; but I trust it is not too late. Harris quotes one of our book’s passages in which we argue that if we can depolarize the science versus religion battle, we can likely broaden public acceptance of evolution. It’s an argument, Harris says, “that, I fear, most people would accept.” Unlike many New Atheists, then, Harris implicitly realizes the obvious and, indeed, commonsensical force of our argument--even though he rejects it. ...