Water is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. What if someone says, โWell, thatโs not how I choose to think about water.โ? All we can do is appeal to scientific values. And if he doesnโt share those values, the conversation is over. If someone doesnโt value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide to prove they should value it? If someone doesnโt value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?
Sam HarrisOne of the worst things about breaking the law is that it puts one at odds with an indeterminate number of other people. This is among the many corrosive effects of having unjust laws: They tempt peaceful and (otherwise) honest people to lie so as to avoid being punished for behavior that is ethically blameless.
Sam HarrisThe problem of vindicating an omnipotent and omniscient God in the face of evil is insurmountable. Those who claim to have surmounted it, by recourse to notions of free will and other incoherencies, have merely heaped bad philosophy onto bad ethics.
Sam HarrisHow can we encourage other human beings to extend their moral sympathies beyond a narrow locus? How can we learn to become mere human beings, shorn of any more compelling national, ethnic, or religious identity? We can be reasonable. It is in the very nature of reason to fuse cognitive and moral horizons. Reason is nothing less than the guardian of love.
Sam Harris