I was watching a debate between Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris when Sam used a cheap shot against Jordan to make a point. Jordan was trying to point out that the concept of sacrifice in religion was used to teach the virtue of delayed gratification. Jordan had just started to articulate his point when Sam immediately jumped in to conflate “sacrifice” with “human sacrifice”. This is a fallacious argument frequently used by leftists to cheat in a debate. Not all sacrifice is human sacrifice. Sam was using Hollywood imagery to make his point, counting on the idea of a bunch of primitive people hauling a virgin to an alter to sacrifice her before a huge ugly idol. Then, after Jordan had started to explain his point, it became obvious he was using the biblical concept of sacrifice, not the Hollywood one. Sam then interjected that Christianity was “based on human sacrifice”. At this point I became angry and was unable to finish watching the debate, because it was obvious that Sam was taking advantage of Jordan’s integrity and unwillingness to call him out on his cheating.

I was unaware that anyone had ever conflated Jesus’ sacrifice for us all to human sacrifice. This idea is based on what I like to call the “apples and oranges” fallacy. Jesus’ sacrifice might look like human sacrifice, but really is not. Jesus was not offered up on an altar to God. He did not go willingly, but rather was unwilling to use his God power to stop his being killed. He was betrayed by a friend, and then captured by solders. He then went to trial, was convicted using false testimony, and was beaten to a pulp. After all this, he was executed like a common criminal. On top of all this, it was not a “human” sacrifice, it was GOD sacrificing HIMSELF, who is NOT human. Conflating all this to be equivalent to hauling a virgin before an idol and killing her to appease an angry god is absurd.

The fact is, Sam Harris is a bigot against Christians. He hates us in the same way that a KKK member hates blacks. He is willing to cheat in a debate to justify his hatred. Jordan Peterson was “casting his pearls” before a swine.