The science of morality is about maximizing psychological and social health. It's really no more inflammatory than that.
Sam HarrisTo say that I would have done otherwise had I wanted to is simply to say that I would have lived in a different universe had I been in a different universe.
Sam HarrisNeedless to say, this would be an unthinkable crimeโas it would kill tens of millions of innocent civilians in a single dayโbut it may be the only course of action available to us, given what Islamists believe
Sam HarrisThe 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 HarrisThe 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 HarrisTell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what so ever.
Sam Harris