TOPICS
SPEAKERS
HOME
BROWSE TOPICS
BROWSE SPEAKERS
◀ BACK

Sam Harris

Other
1
2
The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive.
From Letter to a Christian Nation
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Man is manifestly not the measure of all things. This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Consider it: every person you have ever met, every person will suffer the loss of his friends and family. All are going to lose everything they love in this world. Why would one want to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name. The consciousness that animates us is itself central to this mystery and the ground for any experience we might wish to call 'spiritual.' No myths need be embraced for us to commune with the profundity of our circumstance. No personal God need be worshiped for us to live in awe at the beauty and immensity of creation. No tribal fictions need be rehearsed for us to realize, one fine day, that we do, in fact, love our neighbors, that our happiness is inextricable from their own, and that our interdependence demands that people everywhere be given the opportunity to flourish.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Religious moderation is the product of secular knowledge and scriptural ignorance.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical, Religion
Theology is ignorance with wings.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
In the year 2006, a person can have sufficient intellectual and material resources to build a nuclear bomb and still believe that he will get seventy-two virgins in Paradise.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The fact that my continuous and public rejection of Christianity does not worry me in the least should suggest to you just how inadequate I think your reasons for being a Christian are.
From Letter to a Christian Nation
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Let me assure you that my intent is not to offend or merely be provocative. I'm simply worried.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
[I]f the basic claims of religion are true, the scientific worldview is so blinkered and susceptible to supernatural modification as to be rendered nearly ridiculous; if the basic claims of religion are false, most people are profoundly confused about the nature of reality, confounded by irrational hopes and fears, and tending to waste precious time and attention--often with tragic results. Is this really a dichotomy about which science can claim to be neutral?
From The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical, Religion
We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
We read the Golden Rule and judge it to be a brilliant distillation of many of our ethical impulses. And then we come across another of God’s teachings on morality: if a man discovers on his wedding night that his bride is not a virgin, he must stone her to death on her father’s doorstep (Deuteronomy 22:13-21).
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
If faith is what you have to go on, if faith is the link between your beliefs and the world at large, your beliefs are very likely to be wrong. Beliefs can be right or wrong. If you believe you can fly, that belief is only true if indeed you can fly. Somebody who thinks he can fly, and is wrong about it, will eventually discover there's a problem with his view of the world.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Faith does not offer a strong link between our beliefs and actual states of the world.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Losing a belief in free will has not made me fatalistic—in fact, it has increased my feelings of freedom. My hopes, fears, and neuroses seem less personal and indelible. There is no telling how much I might change in the future. Just as one wouldn’t draw a lasting conclusion about oneself on the basis of a brief experience of indigestion, one needn’t do so on the basis of how one has thought or behaved for vast stretches of time in the past. A creative change of inputs to the system—learning new skills, forming new relationships, adopting new habits of attention—may radically transform one’s life.
From Free Will
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
It is also worth noting that one can obtain a Ph.D. in any branch of science for no other purpose than to make cynical use of scientific language in an effort to rationalize the glaring inadequacies of tbe Bible. A handful of Christians appear to have done this; some have even obtained their degrees from reputable universities. No doubt, others will follow in their footsteps. While such people are technically "scientists," they are not behaving like scientists. They simply are not engaged in an honest inquiry into the nature of the universe. And their proclamations about God and the failures of Darwinism do not in the least signify that there is a legitimate scientific controversy about evolution.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education, Religion
What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
When the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, it is impossible to respect the beliefs of others who don't believe as you do.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive.
From Letter to a Christian Nation
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Man is manifestly not the measure of all things. This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Consider it: every person you have ever met, every person will suffer the loss of his friends and family. All are going to lose everything they love in this world. Why would one want to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name. The consciousness that animates us is itself central to this mystery and the ground for any experience we might wish to call 'spiritual.' No myths need be embraced for us to commune with the profundity of our circumstance. No personal God need be worshiped for us to live in awe at the beauty and immensity of creation. No tribal fictions need be rehearsed for us to realize, one fine day, that we do, in fact, love our neighbors, that our happiness is inextricable from their own, and that our interdependence demands that people everywhere be given the opportunity to flourish.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Religious moderation is the product of secular knowledge and scriptural ignorance.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical, Religion
Theology is ignorance with wings.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
In the year 2006, a person can have sufficient intellectual and material resources to build a nuclear bomb and still believe that he will get seventy-two virgins in Paradise.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The fact that my continuous and public rejection of Christianity does not worry me in the least should suggest to you just how inadequate I think your reasons for being a Christian are.
From Letter to a Christian Nation
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Let me assure you that my intent is not to offend or merely be provocative. I'm simply worried.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
[I]f the basic claims of religion are true, the scientific worldview is so blinkered and susceptible to supernatural modification as to be rendered nearly ridiculous; if the basic claims of religion are false, most people are profoundly confused about the nature of reality, confounded by irrational hopes and fears, and tending to waste precious time and attention--often with tragic results. Is this really a dichotomy about which science can claim to be neutral?
From The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical, Religion
We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
We read the Golden Rule and judge it to be a brilliant distillation of many of our ethical impulses. And then we come across another of God’s teachings on morality: if a man discovers on his wedding night that his bride is not a virgin, he must stone her to death on her father’s doorstep (Deuteronomy 22:13-21).
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
If faith is what you have to go on, if faith is the link between your beliefs and the world at large, your beliefs are very likely to be wrong. Beliefs can be right or wrong. If you believe you can fly, that belief is only true if indeed you can fly. Somebody who thinks he can fly, and is wrong about it, will eventually discover there's a problem with his view of the world.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Faith does not offer a strong link between our beliefs and actual states of the world.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Losing a belief in free will has not made me fatalistic—in fact, it has increased my feelings of freedom. My hopes, fears, and neuroses seem less personal and indelible. There is no telling how much I might change in the future. Just as one wouldn’t draw a lasting conclusion about oneself on the basis of a brief experience of indigestion, one needn’t do so on the basis of how one has thought or behaved for vast stretches of time in the past. A creative change of inputs to the system—learning new skills, forming new relationships, adopting new habits of attention—may radically transform one’s life.
From Free Will
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
It is also worth noting that one can obtain a Ph.D. in any branch of science for no other purpose than to make cynical use of scientific language in an effort to rationalize the glaring inadequacies of tbe Bible. A handful of Christians appear to have done this; some have even obtained their degrees from reputable universities. No doubt, others will follow in their footsteps. While such people are technically "scientists," they are not behaving like scientists. They simply are not engaged in an honest inquiry into the nature of the universe. And their proclamations about God and the failures of Darwinism do not in the least signify that there is a legitimate scientific controversy about evolution.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education, Religion
What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
When the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, it is impossible to respect the beliefs of others who don't believe as you do.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive.
From Letter to a Christian Nation
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Man is manifestly not the measure of all things. This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Consider it: every person you have ever met, every person will suffer the loss of his friends and family. All are going to lose everything they love in this world. Why would one want to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Inspirational
It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name. The consciousness that animates us is itself central to this mystery and the ground for any experience we might wish to call 'spiritual.' No myths need be embraced for us to commune with the profundity of our circumstance. No personal God need be worshiped for us to live in awe at the beauty and immensity of creation. No tribal fictions need be rehearsed for us to realize, one fine day, that we do, in fact, love our neighbors, that our happiness is inextricable from their own, and that our interdependence demands that people everywhere be given the opportunity to flourish.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Religious moderation is the product of secular knowledge and scriptural ignorance.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical, Religion
Theology is ignorance with wings.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
In the year 2006, a person can have sufficient intellectual and material resources to build a nuclear bomb and still believe that he will get seventy-two virgins in Paradise.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The fact that my continuous and public rejection of Christianity does not worry me in the least should suggest to you just how inadequate I think your reasons for being a Christian are.
From Letter to a Christian Nation
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Let me assure you that my intent is not to offend or merely be provocative. I'm simply worried.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
[I]f the basic claims of religion are true, the scientific worldview is so blinkered and susceptible to supernatural modification as to be rendered nearly ridiculous; if the basic claims of religion are false, most people are profoundly confused about the nature of reality, confounded by irrational hopes and fears, and tending to waste precious time and attention--often with tragic results. Is this really a dichotomy about which science can claim to be neutral?
From The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical, Religion
We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
We read the Golden Rule and judge it to be a brilliant distillation of many of our ethical impulses. And then we come across another of God’s teachings on morality: if a man discovers on his wedding night that his bride is not a virgin, he must stone her to death on her father’s doorstep (Deuteronomy 22:13-21).
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
If faith is what you have to go on, if faith is the link between your beliefs and the world at large, your beliefs are very likely to be wrong. Beliefs can be right or wrong. If you believe you can fly, that belief is only true if indeed you can fly. Somebody who thinks he can fly, and is wrong about it, will eventually discover there's a problem with his view of the world.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Faith does not offer a strong link between our beliefs and actual states of the world.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
Losing a belief in free will has not made me fatalistic—in fact, it has increased my feelings of freedom. My hopes, fears, and neuroses seem less personal and indelible. There is no telling how much I might change in the future. Just as one wouldn’t draw a lasting conclusion about oneself on the basis of a brief experience of indigestion, one needn’t do so on the basis of how one has thought or behaved for vast stretches of time in the past. A creative change of inputs to the system—learning new skills, forming new relationships, adopting new habits of attention—may radically transform one’s life.
From Free Will
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Philosophical
It is also worth noting that one can obtain a Ph.D. in any branch of science for no other purpose than to make cynical use of scientific language in an effort to rationalize the glaring inadequacies of tbe Bible. A handful of Christians appear to have done this; some have even obtained their degrees from reputable universities. No doubt, others will follow in their footsteps. While such people are technically "scientists," they are not behaving like scientists. They simply are not engaged in an honest inquiry into the nature of the universe. And their proclamations about God and the failures of Darwinism do not in the least signify that there is a legitimate scientific controversy about evolution.
From The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education, Religion
What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
When the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, it is impossible to respect the beliefs of others who don't believe as you do.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Religion
1
2