It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.
SAM HARRISIt is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.
SAM HARRISOne could surely argue that the Buddhist tradition, taken as a whole, represents the richest source of contemplative wisdom that any civilization has produced.
SAM HARRISIslam, at the moment, is the motherlode of bad ideas.
SAM HARRISThis is the true horror of religion. It allows perfectly decent and sane people to believe by the billions, what only lunatics could believe on their own.
SAM HARRISYou don’t get anything worth getting, by pretending to know things you don’t know.
SAM HARRISUnlike statements of fact, which require no further work on our part, lies must be continually protected from collisions with reality.
SAM HARRISScience is the most durable and nondivisive way of thinking about the human circumstance. It transcends cultural, national, and political boundaries. You don’t have American science versus Canadian science versus Japanese science.
SAM HARRISReligious moderation is the product of secular knowledge and scriptural ignorance.
SAM HARRISThe position of the Muslim community in the face of all provocations seems to be: Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say that it isn’t, we will kill you.
SAM HARRISThe atheist, by merely being in touch with reality, appears shamefully out of touch with the fantasy life of his neighbors.
SAM HARRISWhen the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, it is impossible to respect the beliefs of others who don’t believe as you do.
SAM HARRISYou almost never get the pleasure of seeing that you won the argument in real time. People just don’t like to publicly change their minds. They change their minds in private.
SAM HARRISIt is time we recognized that belief is not a private matter; it has never been merely private. In fact, beliefs are scarcely more private than actions are, for every belief is a fount of action in potential.
SAM HARRISIt is as though a portal in time has opened, and the Christians of the 14th century are pouring into our world.
SAM HARRISAtheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which the obvious is overlooked as a matter of principle.
SAM HARRISScience, in the broadest sense, includes all reasonable claims to knowledge about ourselves and the world.
SAM HARRIS