From my point of view, compatibilism is a little like saying: a puppet is free so long as it loves its strings.
SAM HARRISFrom my point of view, compatibilism is a little like saying: a puppet is free so long as it loves its strings.
SAM HARRISThe only thing that permits human beings to collaborate with one another in a truly open-ended way is their willingness to have their beliefs modified by new facts. Only openness to evidence and argument will secure a common world for us.
SAM HARRISIt is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.
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 HARRISI know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs.
SAM HARRISEither our wills are determined by prior causes and we are not responsible for them, or they are the product of chance and we are not responsible for them.
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 HARRISIt is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.
SAM HARRISScience, in the broadest sense, includes all reasonable claims to knowledge about ourselves and the world.
SAM HARRISThe truth is that we simply do not know what happens after death.
SAM HARRISThe problem with religion, because it’s been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.
SAM HARRISThe moral landscape is the framework I use for thinking about questions of morality and human values in universal terms.
SAM HARRISThe faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence.
SAM HARRISIt is as though a portal in time has opened, and the Christians of the 14th century are pouring into our world.
SAM HARRISHow we pay attention to the present moment…determin es the character of our experience and…the quality of our lives.
SAM HARRISAs an atheist, I am angry that we live in a society in which the plain truth cannot be spoken without offending 90% of the population.
SAM HARRIS