Almost all our suffering is the product of our thoughts. We spend nearly every moment of our lives lost in thought, and hostage to the character of those thoughts. You can break this spell, but it takes training just like it takes training to defend yourself against a physical assault.
Sam HarrisEither our wills are determined by prior causes and we are not responsible for them, or they are the product of chance and we are not responsible for them.
Sam HarrisNothing in Chomsky's account acknowledges the difference between intending to kill a child, because of the effect you hope to produce on its parents (we call this โterrorismโ), and inadvertently killing a child in an attempt to capture or kill an avowed child murderer (we call this โcollateral damageโ). In both cases a child has died, and in both cases it is a tragedy. But the ethical status of the perpetrators, be they individuals or states, could not be more distinct For Chomsky, intentions do not seem to matter. Body count is all.
Sam HarrisTo say that I would have done otherwise had I wanted to is simply to say that I would have lived in a different universe had I been in a different universe.
Sam HarrisAbout 120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. If our polls are to be trusted, nearly 230 million Americans believe that a book showing neither unity of style nor internal consistency was authored by an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent deity.
Sam HarrisWe read the Golden Rule and judge it to be a brilliant distillation of many of our ethical impulses. And then we come across another of Godโs teachings on morality: if a man discovers on his wedding night that his bride is not a virgin, he must stone her to death on her fatherโs doorstep (Deuteronomy 22:13-21).
Sam Harris