Sam Harris Quotes - Page 10

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• Many of my fellow atheists consider all talk of 'spirituality' or 'mysticism' to be synonymous with mental illness, conscious fraud, or self-deception. I have argued elsewhere that this is a problem - because millions of people have had experiences for which 'spiritual' and 'mystical' seem the only terms available.

  Sam Harris

  Spiritual, Atheist, Self

  "On Spiritual Truths" by Sam Harris, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 16, 2011.

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• Human experience depends on everything that can influence states of the human brain, ranging from changes in our genome to changes in the global economy.

  Sam Harris

  Brain, Influence, Economy

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• The problem of human suffering is never too much rational thinking, or too high a demand for evidence. But the solutions are. ... Reason is nothing less than the guardian of love.

  Sam Harris

  Thinking, Suffering, Demand

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• Needless to say, this would be an unthinkable crime—as it would kill tens of millions of innocent civilians in a single day—but it may be the only course of action available to us, given what Islamists believe

  Sam Harris

  Believe, May, Would Be

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.129, W. W. Norton & Company

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• We rely on faith only in the context of claims for which there is no sufficient sensory or logical evidence.

  Sam Harris

  Atheist, Atheism, Logical

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• ‎Faith, if it is ever right about anything, is right by accident

  Sam Harris

  Accidents, Ifs

  Sam Harris (2011). “The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values”, p.6, Simon and Schuster

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• The problem that religious moderation poses for all of us is that it does not permit anything very critical to be said about religious literalism.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, Doe, Problem

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.20, W. W. Norton & Company

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• I think it [getting a gun] should be like getting a pilot's license. I think you should require training to get a license to have a gun.

  Sam Harris

  Gun, Thinking, Training

  "Real Time with Bill Maher", February 1, 2013.

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• The problem I want to talk to you about tonight is the problem of belief. What does it mean to believe? We use this word all the time, and I think behind it lurk some really extraordinary taboos and confusions. What I want to argue tonight is that how we talk about belief- how we fail to criticize or criticize the beliefs of others, has more importance to us personally, more consequence to us personally and to civilization than perhaps anything else that is in our power to influence.

  Sam Harris

  Atheist, Believe, Mean

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• In my own case, the most inflammatory statements I have ever made are ones that I have written and remain willing to defend.

  Sam Harris

  Made, Cases, Willing

  "The Perils of the Print Interview" by Sam Harris, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 24, 2011.

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• Where we have reasons for what we believe, we have no need of faith; where we have no reasons, we have lost both our connection to the world and to one another.

  Sam Harris

  Atheist, Believe, Connections

  "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason". Book by Sam Harris, 2004.

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• People who harbor strong convictions without evidence belong at the margins of our societies, not in our halls of power. The only thing we should respect in a person’s faith is his desire for a better life in this world; we need never have respected his certainty that one awaits him in the next.

  Sam Harris

  Strong, People, Desire

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.225, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The principal tenet of Jainism is non-harming. Observant Jains will literally not harm a fly. Fundamentalist Jainism and fundamentalist Islam do not have the same consequences, neither logically nor behaviorally.

  Sam Harris

  Islam, Harm, Jainism

  "Q&A with Sam Harris". Article on the official site samharris.org, 2005.

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• All I'm arguing for really is that we should have a conversation where the best ideas really thrive, where there's no taboo against criticizing bad ideas, and where everyone who shows up, in order to get their ideas entertained, has to meet some obvious burdens of intellectual rigor and self-criticism and honesty-and when people fail to do that, we are free to stop listening to them. What religion has had up until this moment is a different set of rules that apply only to it, which is you have to respect my religious certainty even though I'm telling you I arrived at it irrationally.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, Honesty, Self

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• If we cannot find our way to a time when most of us are willing to admit that, at the very least, we are not sure whether or not God wrote some of our books, then we need only count the days to Armageddon-because God has given us far many more reasons to kill one another than to turn the other cheek.

  Sam Harris

  Atheist, Book, Way

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.35, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Anyone familiar with my work knows that I am extremely critical of all religious faiths.

  Sam Harris

  Religious, Familiar, Critical

  "Bombing Our Illusions" by Sam Harris, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 10, 2005.

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• And while Protestant reformers broke with Rome on a variety of counts, their treatment of their fellow human beings was no less disgraceful. Public executions were more popular than ever: heretics were still reduced to ash, scholars were tortured and killed for impertinent displays of reason, and fornicators were murdered without a qualm.

  Sam Harris

  Rome, Religion, Ashes

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.86, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Strange bonds of trust and self-deception tend to grow between journalists and their subjects.

  Sam Harris

  Self, Deception, Strange

  Sam Harris (2013). “Lying”, p.80, Four Elephants Press

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• It is still fashionable to believe that how you organize yourself religiously in this life may matter for eternity. Unless we can erode the prestige of that kind of thinking, we're not going to be able to undermine these divisions in our world.

  Sam Harris

  Believe, Thinking, Our World

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• 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 that it presided over the birth of the universe.

  Sam Harris

  Ocean, Mean, Self

  "On Spiritual Truths" by Sam Harris, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 16, 2011.

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• Each increment of knowledge imparted in this way is so satisfying-and one's ignorance at every stage so consequential-that the process of learning BJJ can become remarkably addictive. I have never experienced anything quite like it.

  Sam Harris

  Ignorance, Mma, Way

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• Take a moment to reflect upon the existence of the musical The Book of Mormon. Now imagine the security precautions that would be required to stage a similar production about Islam. The project is unimaginable—not only in Beirut, Baghdad, or Jerusalem, but in New York City.

  Sam Harris

  New York, Book, Cities

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• To treat others ethically is to act out of concern for their happiness and suffering.

  Sam Harris

  Suffering, Morality, Treats

  Sam Harris (2005). “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”, p.186, W. W. Norton & Company

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• It is easy to see what many people, women especially, admire about Sarah Palin. Here is a mother of five who can see the bright side of having a child with Down syndrome and still find the time and energy to govern the state of Alaska.

  Sam Harris

  Mother, Children, Alaska

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