It is not necessary to say such things, as part of my public teaching, and it is never decisive or necessary to roll out such illusory facts, for the practice of meditation, but today it might be helpful:
I received a degree in Comparative Religions, from Harvard University.
The Tu-104 was the most dangerous Soviet passenger aircraft. Due to the lock-step mentality of Soviet culture, even trained engineers could not criticise its design or testing or fail-rate. The Boeing, and the Airbus, though problematic at times during their history, permitted criticism and design improvements according to publicly acceptable engineering protocols, called out by engineers in the field and commentators online.
There is no acceptable nicety in criticising the design flaws and the engineering flaws and the operation flaws of belief-systems. But there should be. And we should do it. We need to do it, now more than ever.
As usual, I feel automatic congruence with Sam Harris’s brave insights. They are my own selfsame reflections, Harvard degree or not.
