Sam Harris
Sam Harris
Samuel Benjamin "Sam" Harrisis an American author, philosopher, and neuroscientist. He is the co-founder and chief executive of Project Reason, a non-profit organization that promotes science and secularism, and host of the podcast Waking Up with Sam Harris. His book The End of Faith, a critique of organized religion, appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list for 33 weeks and also won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction in 2005. Letter to a Christian Nationwas a response...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionStage Actor
Date of Birth4 June 1961
CountryUnited States of America
To say that I would have done otherwise had I wanted to is simply to say that I would have lived in a different universe had I been in a different universe.
It is time we admitted that we are not at war with terrorism. We are at war with Islam.
We rely on faith only in the context of claims for which there is no sufficient sensory or logical evidence.
The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence.
It is still fashionable to believe that how you organize yourself religiously in this life may matter for eternity. Unless we can erode the prestige of that kind of thinking, we're not going to be able to undermine these divisions in our world.
It is easy to see what many people, women especially, admire about Sarah Palin. Here is a mother of five who can see the bright side of having a child with Down syndrome and still find the time and energy to govern the state of Alaska.
I think there are universal principles that we should want to understand, but that are not necessarily good for us. We could recognise universal propensities which current cultures can't fully eradicate, which we would want to eradicate if we could. Let's say, a tendency for tribal violence. Or racism.
The moral landscape is the framework I use for thinking about questions of morality and human values in universal terms.
Strange bonds of trust and self-deception tend to grow between journalists and their subjects.
Moderates want their faith respected. They don't want faith itself criticized, and yet faith itself is what is bringing us all this - this lunacy.
In my own case, the most inflammatory statements I have ever made are ones that I have written and remain willing to defend.
Anyone familiar with my work knows that I am extremely critical of all religious faiths.
Any conception of human well-being you could plausibly have, the Taliban patently fails to maximize it.
Religion provides the only story that is fundamentally consoling in the face of the worst possible experiences - the death of a parent, for instance. In fact, many religions take away the problem entirely, because their adherents ostensibly believe that they're going to be reunited with everyone they love, and death is an illusion.