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
Death is, in some ways, unacceptable. It's just an astonishing fact of our being here that we die; but I think worse… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
When considering the truth of a proposition, one is either engaged in an honest appraisal of the evidence and logical arguments, or… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Missionaries in the developing world waste a lot of time and money (not to mention the goodwill of non-Christians) proselytizing to the… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
We have Christians against Muslims against Jews. They're making incompatible claims on real estate in the Middle East as though God were… — 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
People who harbor strong convictions without evidence belong at the margins of our societies, not in our halls of power. The only… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Recently , crowds of thousands gathered throughout the Muslim world - burning European embassies, issuing threats, taking hostages, even killing people -… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
In fact, "atheism" is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a "non-astrologer" or… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Perhaps one day we will do “everything that we can to protect our people and the timeless values that we stand for.”… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
It's not so much religion per se, it's false certainty that worries me, and religion just has more than its fair share… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
There must be right and wrong answers to questions of morality and values that potentially fall within the purview of science. On… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. — 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
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
Nearly half of the American population is eagerly anticipating the end of the world. This dewy-eyed nihilism provides absolutely no incentive to… — 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
While the religious divisions in our world are self-evident, many people still imagine that religious conflict is always caused by a lack… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Every one of the world's "great" religions utterly trivializes the immensity and beauty of the cosmos. Books like the Bible and the… — 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
One of the worst things about breaking the law is that it puts one at odds with an indeterminate number of other… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Nothing guarantees that reasonable people will agree about everything, of course, but the unreasonable are certain to be divided by their dogmas.… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Tolerance, openness to argument, openness to self-doubt, willingness to see other people's points of view - these are very liberal and enlightened… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Principle #1: Avoid dangerous people and dangerous places. Principle #2: Do not defend your property. Principle #3: Respond immediately and escape. — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Faith drives a wedge between ethics and suffering. Where certain actions cause no suffering at all, religious dogmatists still maintain that they… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“But the reality of consciousness appears irreducible. Only consciousness can know itself—and directly, through first-person experience.” — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
“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 Image
The problem is that religion tends to give people bad reasons to be good. — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
