The idea, therefore, that religious faith is somehow a sacred human conventionโdistinguished, as it is, both by the extravagance of its claims and by the paucity of its evidenceโis really too great a monstrosity to be appreciated in all its glory. Religious faith represents so uncompromising a misuse of the power of our minds that it forms a kind of perverse, cultural singularityโa vanishing point beyond which rational discourse proves impossible.
Sam HarrisWe are free to burn the Qurโan or any other book, and to criticize Muhammad or any other human being. Let no one forget it.
Sam HarrisIt is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.
Sam HarrisIt's not so much religion per se, it's false certainty that worries me, and religion just has more than its fair share of false certainty or dogmatism. I'm really concerned when I see people pretending to know things they clearly cannot know.
Sam HarrisPerhaps one day we will do โeverything that we can to protect our people and the timeless values that we stand for.โ But today, we wonโt even honestly describe the motivations of our enemies. And in the act of lying to ourselves, we continue to pay lip service to the very delusions that empower them.
Sam HarrisIf faith is what you have to go on, if faith is the link between your beliefs and the world at large, your beliefs are very likely to be wrong. Beliefs can be right or wrong. If you believe you can fly, that belief is only true if indeed you can fly. Somebody who thinks he can fly, and is wrong about it, will eventually discover there's a problem with his view of the world.
Sam HarrisAnd 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