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Religion Quotes by Sam Harris

167 Religion quotes by Sam Harris

All Religion quotes Sam Harris’s page

Harris points out that religion often separates moral ideas from real human and animal suffering. He says claiming any faith is the one true word requires ignoring history, mythology, and art. He also warns that even moderate religion can block the development of more nuanced ethical thinking.

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Faith, if it is ever right about anything, is right by accident

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The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence.

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Theology is ignorance with wings.

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Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches.

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It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.

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We rely on faith only in the context of claims for which there is no sufficient sensory or logical evidence.

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“While missionaries do many noble things at great risk to themselves, their dogmatism still spreads ignorance and death.”

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Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma.

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The problem is that religion tends to give people bad reasons to be good.

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Religious moderation is the product of secular knowledge and scriptural ignorance.

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Religious faith is the one species of human ignorance that will not admit of even the possibility of correction.

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I think when you say to someone You are fool not to believe in evolution or a fool to believe the universe…

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While religious tolerance is surely better than religious war, tolerance is not without its liabilities. Our fear of provoking religious hatred has…

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“If there is any kernel of truth in the religions we so deplore,and they are just a carnival of errors,the truth is…

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“Within a religious framework, a belief in free will supports the notion of sin—which seems to justify not only harsh punishment in…

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“The truth, however, is that the conflict between religion and science is unavoidable. The success of science often comes at the expense…

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The perpetrators of the Inquisition - the torturers, informers, and those who commanded their actions - were ecclesiastics of one rank or…

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On the subject of religious belief, we relax standards of reasonableness and evidence that we rely on in every other area of…

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The position of the Muslim community in the face of all provocations seems to be: Islam is a religion of peace, and…

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“What is the alternative to religion as we know it? As it turns out, this is the wrong question to ask. Chemistry…

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The usefulness of religion - the fact that it gives life meaning, that it makes people feel good - is not an…

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“Consider the case of alchemy: it fascinated human beings for over a thousand years, and yet anyone who seriously claims to be…

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“For many years, I have been a vocal critic of religion, and I won’t ride the same hobbyhorse here. I hope that…

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“The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialog with God. If he said…

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The idea, therefore, that religious faith is somehow a sacred human convention—distinguished, as it is, both by the extravagance of its claims…

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“Religious moderation, insofar as it represents an attempt to hold on to what is still serviceable in orthodox religion, closes the door…

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And while Protestant reformers broke with Rome on a variety of counts, their treatment of their fellow human beings was no less…

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“Countries with high levels of atheism are also the most charitable both in terms of the percentage of their wealth they devote…

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“Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United Kingdom are among the least religious societies on…

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“Our situation is this: most of the people in this world believe that the Creator of the universe has written a book.…

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“I am often asked what will replace organized religion. The answer, I believe, is nothing and everything. Nothing need replace its ludicrous…

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God is great"). Conversations about the practical impossibility of God's existence and the science-based irrationality of an afterlife slid seamlessly into xenophobia…

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“There is no doubt that the United States has much to atone for, both domestically and abroad...To produce this horrible confection at…

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“While political affiliation in the united States is not a perfect indicator of religiosity, it is no secret that the 'red [Republican]…

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“Your frequent claim that we must understand religious belief as a “social construct,” produced by “societal causes,” dependent upon “social and cultural…

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“The problem with religion is that it blends this truth so thoroughly with the venom of unreason.”

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To not believe in God is to know that it falls to us to make the world a better place.

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120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer.

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“...religious beliefs are simply beyond the scope of rational discourse.”

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“Faith is like a pickpocket who loans a person his own money on generous terms.”

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“Moderates in every faith are obliged to loosely interpret (or simply ignore) much of their canons in the interests of living in the modern…

There is no question but that nominally religious scientists like Francis Collins and Kenneth R. Miller are doing lasting harm to our discourse by…

We have Christians against Muslims against Jews, and no matter how liberal your theology, merely identifying yourself as a Christian or a Jew lends…

“Your principal concern appears to be that the Creator of the universe will take offense at something people do while naked. This prudery of…

“As manuals for contemplative understanding, the Bible and the Koran are worse than useless. Whatever wisdom can be found in their pages is never…

About 120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. If our polls are…

“If your golf instructor were to insist that you shave your head, sleep no more than four hours each night, renounce sex, and subsist…

The fact that one can lose one's sense of self in an ocean of tranquility does not mean that one's consciousness is immaterial or…

The second commandment is "Thou shall not construct any graven images." Is this really the pinnacle of what we can achieve morally? The second…

“But the reality of consciousness appears irreducible. Only consciousness can know itself—and directly, through first-person experience.”

“Whether or not one likes Huntington's formulation, one thing is clear: the evil that has finally reached our shores is not merely the evil…

The problem is that religion tends to give people bad reasons to be good.

Muslim moderates, wherever they are, must be given every tool necessary to win a war of ideas with their co-religionists. Otherwise, we will have…

The idea that any one of our religions represents the infallible word of the One True God requires an encyclopedic ignorance of history, mythology,…

“What could possibly cause billions of human beings to reconsider their religious beliefs? And yet, it is obvious that an utter revolution in our…