Religious faith is the only area of discourse where immunity through conversation is considered noble . It's the only area of our lives where someone can win points for saying, "There's nothing that you can do to change my mind and I'm taking no state of the world ultimately into account in believing what I believe. There's nothing to change about the world that would cause me to revise my beliefs.
Sam HarrisRather than bring the full force of our creativity and rationality to bear on the problems of ethics, social cohesion, and even spiritual experience, moderates merely ask that we relax our standard of adherence to ancient superstitions and taboos, while otherwise maintaining a belief system that was passed down to us from men and women whose lives were simply ravaged by their basic ignorance about the world.
Sam HarrisAtheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma.
Sam HarrisWater 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 HarrisThe only thing that guarantees an open-ended collaboration among human beings, the only thing that guarantees that this project is truly open-ended, is a willingness to have our beliefs and behaviors modified by the power of conversation.
Sam Harris