Human well-being is not a random phenomenon. It depends on many factors - ranging from genetics and neurobiology to sociology and economics. But, clearly, there are scientific truths to be known about how we can flourish in this world. Wherever we can have an impact on the well-being of others, questions of morality apply.
Sam HarrisWe will see that the greatest problem confronting civilization is not merely religious extremism: rather, it is the larger set of cultural and intellectual accommodations we have made to faith itself.
Sam HarrisThe men who committed the atrocities of September 11 were certainly not "cowards," as they were repeatedly described in the Western media, nor were they lunatics in any ordinary sense. They were men of faithโperfect faith, as it turns outโand this, it must finally be acknowledged, is a terrible thing to be.
Sam HarrisWe have Christians against Muslims against Jews, and no matter how liberal your theology, merely identifying yourself as a Christian or a Jew lends tacit validity to this status quo. People have morally identified with a subset of humanity rather than with humanity as a whole.
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 Harris