The science of morality is about maximizing psychological and social health. It's really no more inflammatory than that.
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 HarrisPeople 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 personโs 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 HarrisWhat I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.
Sam HarrisIndeed, what is startling about the notion of a victimless crime is that even when the behavior in question is genuinely victimless, its criminality is still affirmed by those who are eager to punish it. It is in such cases that the true genius lurking behind many of our laws stands revealed. The idea of a victimless crime is nothing more than a judicial reprise of the Christian notion of sin.
Sam HarrisAccording to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.
Sam Harris