There is no question but that nominally religious scientists like Francis Collins and Kenneth R. Miller are doing lasting harm to our… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
The moral truth here is obvious: anyone who feels that the interests of a blastocyst just might supersede the interests of a… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
We will see that the greatest problem confronting civilization is not merely religious extremism: rather, it is the larger set of cultural… — 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
The idea, therefore, that religious faith is somehow a sacred human convention—distinguished, as it is, both by the extravagance of its claims… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Religious faith is the one species of human ignorance that will not admit of even the possibility of correction. — 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
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
The conflict between religion and science is inherent and (very nearly) zero-sum. The success of science often comes at the expense of… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
While liberals are leery of religious fundamentalism in general, they consistently imagine that all religions at their core teach the same thing… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
How can we encourage other human beings to extend their moral sympathies beyond a narrow locus? How can we learn to become… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Religious moderation is the direct result of taking scripture less and less seriously. So why not take it less seriously still? Why… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
All I'm arguing for really is that we should have a conversation where the best ideas really thrive, where there's no taboo… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
[I]t is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
One of the greatest challenges facing civilization in the twenty-first century is for human beings to learn to speak about their deepest… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
While religious tolerance is surely better than religious war, tolerance is not without its liabilities. Our fear of provoking religious hatred has… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
The same failure of liberalism is evident in Western Europe, where the dogma of multiculturalism has left a secular Europe very slow… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Anyone familiar with my work knows that I am extremely critical of all religious faiths. — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Religious faith obscures uncertainty where uncertainty . . . exists, allowing the unknown, the implausible, and the . . . false to achieve primacy over the facts. — 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
The same comparison holds true within the United States itself: Southern and Midwestern states, characterized by the highest levels of religious literalism,… — 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
It is terrible that we all die and lose everything we love; it is doubly terrible that so many human beings suffer… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Liberals tend to understand that a person can be lucky or unlucky in all matters relevant to his success. Conservatives, however, often… — Sam Harris Copy Share Image
Religious ideas about good and evil tend to focus on how to achieve well-being in the next life, and this makes them… — 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