Sam Harris v Robert Wright: Where should seculars stand today and tomorrow on religious belief?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar93rQ178LIYou may be wondering why I decided to post this as a thread, bear with me.
I usually watch 'atheist v theist' debates just agreeing wholeheartedly with the the atheist, whether it's because William Lane Craig is trying to prove God again or Dinesh D'Souza is trying to convince us that Hitler is a good example of atheist morality. It's usually an open and shut case and it gets very old and boring.
In this debate, Sam Harris makes his same arguments about Islam more or less. But Robert Wright seems to be advocating a different understanding of Islamic fundamentalism and 'extremism' based on historic social and psychological trends-without being an apologist. This is probably the second time I've taken the theist/opposing side (the first time was with that brilliant man, Chris Hedges), and I looked up Wright afterwards and he seems to have some excellent points.
What do people think of Wright? If anyone's seen this debate, what do they think? Should the 'new atheists' in America team up with liberal theists like Hedges, or other non-theists who are critical of the 'new atheists' (like Wright) in order to tackle the serious problem of the Christian right?