To not believe in God is to know that it falls to us to make the world a better place. — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
“Some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them.” — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
It is still fashionable to believe that how you organize yourself religiously in this life may matter for eternity. Unless we can… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
In the year 2006, a person can have sufficient intellectual and material resources to build a nuclear bomb and still believe that… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
The problem with religion, because it's been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Where we have reasons for what we believe, we have no need of faith; where we have no reasons, we have lost… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
On the subject of religious belief, we relax standards of reasonableness and evidence that we rely on in every other area of… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
I think when you say to someone You are fool not to believe in evolution or a fool to believe the universe… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
When the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
It is time we realize that belief is not a private matter. As a man believes, so he will act. Believe that… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Imagine a world in which generations of human beings come to believe that certain films were made by God or that specific… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Unreason is now ascendant in the United States - in our schools, in our courts, and in each branch of the federal… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
It is merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
The usefulness of religion - the fact that it gives life meaning, that it makes people feel good - is not an… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
A person who believes that Elvis is still alive is very unlikely to get promoted to a position of great power and… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
The problem is not that religious people are stupid. It's not that religious fundamentalists are stupid. I happen to think that you… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Hope is easy; knowledge is hard. Science is the one domain in which we human beings make a truly heroic effort to… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Mysticism is a rational enterprise. Religion is not. The mystic has recognized something about the nature of consciousness prior to thought, and… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
My concern with religion is that it allows us by the millions to believe what only lunatics or idiots could believe on… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
This is the true horror of religion. It allows perfectly decent and sane people to believe by the billions, what only lunatics… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Needless to say, this would be an unthinkable crime—as it would kill tens of millions of innocent civilians in a single day—but… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Despite a full century of scientific insights attesting to the antiquity of the earth, more than half of our neighbors believe that… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
We do not respect people's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons. If my reasons are good enough for believing what I believe, you… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Most people believe that the Creator of the universe wrote (or dictated) one of their books. Unfortunately, there are many books that… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Our moral reasoning is plagued by two illusions. The first illusion can be called the wag-the-dog illusion: We believe that our own… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
A kernel of truth lurks at the heart of religion, because spiritual experience, ethical behavior, and strong communities are essential for human… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
About 120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. If our… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry. Imagine the consequences… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
While believing strongly, without evidence, is considered a mark of madness or stupidity in any other area of our lives, faith in… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Religious faith is the only area of discourse where immunity through conversation is considered noble . It's the only area of our… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
The problem I want to talk to you about tonight is the problem of belief. What does it mean to believe? We… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Religion provides the only story that is fundamentally consoling in the face of the worst possible experiences - the death of a… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
If faith is what you have to go on, if faith is the link between your beliefs and the world at large,… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
“Moderates in every faith are obliged to loosely interpret (or simply ignore) much of their canons in the interests of living in the modern… — Sam Harris Copy Share
There is no question but that nominally religious scientists like Francis Collins and Kenneth R. Miller are doing lasting harm to our discourse by… — Sam Harris Copy Share
We have Christians against Muslims against Jews, and no matter how liberal your theology, merely identifying yourself as a Christian or a Jew lends… — Sam Harris Copy Share
“Your principal concern appears to be that the Creator of the universe will take offense at something people do while naked. This prudery of… — Sam Harris Copy Share
“As manuals for contemplative understanding, the Bible and the Koran are worse than useless. Whatever wisdom can be found in their pages is never… — Sam Harris Copy Share
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… — Sam Harris Copy Share
“If your golf instructor were to insist that you shave your head, sleep no more than four hours each night, renounce sex, and subsist… — Sam Harris Copy Share
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… — Sam Harris Copy Share
The second commandment is "Thou shall not construct any graven images." Is this really the pinnacle of what we can achieve morally? The second… — Sam Harris Copy Share
“But the reality of consciousness appears irreducible. Only consciousness can know itself—and directly, through first-person experience.” — Sam Harris Copy Share
“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… — Sam Harris Copy Share
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… — Sam Harris Copy Share
The idea that any one of our religions represents the infallible word of the One True God requires an encyclopedic ignorance of history, mythology,… — Sam Harris Copy Share
“What could possibly cause billions of human beings to reconsider their religious beliefs? And yet, it is obvious that an utter revolution in our… — Sam Harris Copy Share
