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64subtitle":"","title":"Speaking of \"Truth\" with Jordan B. Peterson","type":"essays"},{"date":"2017-01-22T12:25:00.000Z","id":"PT8F564C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/c9b4b6a3-5c18-414f-ad3d-95f44e3aa1ec/76df9c08-cbc4-497f-b255-adf70e53e83f_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"","slug":"meme-5","subtitle":"","title":"Meme #5","type":"memes"},{"date":"2017-01-02T23:38:00.000Z","id":"PTD017C0","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/fc2c0ac7-c1d8-4ffb-b869-ebee7ec11645/0611ef12-0de1-4690-aa3b-f6f0dd051c46_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Intellectual Honesty Wherever we look, we find otherwise sane men and women making extraordinary efforts to avoid changing their minds. Of course, many people are reluctant to be seen changing their minds, even though they might be willing to change them in private, seemingly on their own terms—perhaps while reading a book.","slug":"edge-question-2017","subtitle":"What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?","title":"Edge Question 2017","type":"essays"},{"date":"2016-12-26T17:42:00.000Z","id":"PTC7FCF1","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/a961188
640-a37c-4ef1-9873-9489279e6ad7/05bc2693-49e5-402f-8b52-f64655499c8e_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Neural correlates of maintaining one’s political beliefs in the face of counterevidence Jonas T. Kaplan, Sarah I. Gimbel \u0026amp; Sam Harris Nature: Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 39589 (2016) doi:10.1038/srep39589 Abstract People often discount evidence that contradicts their firmly held beliefs. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms that govern this behavior.","slug":"when-the-brain-wont-change-its-mind","subtitle":"","title":"When the Brain Won’t Change Its Mind","type":"essays"},{"date":"2016-12-21T20:40:00.000Z","id":"PT1A259E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/aed892ee-01ef-4443-92df-30319a022c98/b212c848-39c2-4c53-ba4e-6a47d3f484b2_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"","slug":"meme-4","subtitle":"","title":"Meme #4","type":"memes"},{"date":"2016-12-16T19:31:00.000Z","id":"PTABF7E4","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/8d8e8f42-1032-4d6a-b7b0-18d87b5b100e/e26b50b9-5bc5-4de4-b39f-af6a6b65f35c_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"","slug":"meme-3","subtitle":"","title":"Meme #3","type":"memes"},{"date":"2016-12-16T16:17:00.000Z","id":"PTE20FED","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/f2d5ce64-cef4-40fd-9ee2-9e9d0cf2cb0b/4c145552-4408-4000-adf5-5c5457fd1c2b_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Over at Frontpage Magazine and Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer has published an essay titled \u003ca href=\"http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/265146/sam-harris-and-collapse-counter-jihad-left-robert-spencer\"\u003e“Sam Harris and the Collapse of the Counter-Jihad Left: A Failure of Nerve.”\u003c/a\u003e Here is my brief response.","slug":"reply-to-robert-spencer","subtitle":"","title":"Reply to Robert Spencer","type":"essays"},{"date":"2016-12-15T00:03:00.000Z","id":"PT3C3B36","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/f520e062-44e4-4029-bc12-443bf6743797/41984614-1198-4ddd-a6a1-7be9977fc585_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"It has been five years, my friend. Five short years since you taught us how to die with wisdom and wit. And five long ones, wherein the world taught us how deeply we would miss you. Syria. Safe spaces. President Trump. What would you have made of these horrors?.","slug":"missing-hitch","subtitle":"","title":"Missing Hitch","type":"essays"},{"date":"2016-12-13T10:12:00.000Z","id":"PT4A8F10","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/0387e7a9-398a-4cd7-8fa1-6ad44626303d/6499083a-b820-477c-85db-dad7fe093692_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"","slug":"meme-2","subtitle":"","title":"Meme #2","type":"memes"},{"date":"2016-12-04T13:32:00.000Z","id":"PT9E36A7","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/1bd03dea-4dd1-4956-8d5d-7fdad6f561b8/a360b5b7-7753-4518-b129-c778dc94bed9_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"","slug":"meme-1","subtitle":"","title":"Meme #1","type":"memes"},{"date":"2016-11-13T21:36:00.000Z","id":"PT31275F","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/dcf5143f-496b-4b02-a4e2-4dd2ed71ba90/adc707ed115_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eIn this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris talks to biologist David Krakauer about information, complex systems, and the future of humanity.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"complexity-stupidity","subtitle":"","title":"Complexity \u0026 Stupidity","type":"podcast_transcript"},{"date":"2016-10-13T17:20:00.000Z","id":"PT224384","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/08bbf0aa-df67-4cfb-b3ba-ab4293a00264/281a4994-e4aa-4ec1-95da-ec19745b8a1b_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"It is a cliché, of course, to claim that a presidential election is the most important in living memory. But we arrived at that point in the 2016 campaign many months ago, when both sides declared their opponent unqualified for office. Unfortunately, this time the cliché is true, and one side is actually right.","slug":"trump-in-exile2","subtitle":"","title":"Trump in Exile","type":"essays"},{"date":"2016-09-29T08:30:00.000Z","id":"PT92CBF7","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/ec89440e-785d-4ca3-8ad1-2f9db2d9d980/bf4b6e0a-7057-4ecf-bdb1-b9b3506c6b9b_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"","slug":"ted-talk-can-we-build-ai-without-losing-control-over-it","subtitle":"","title":"TED Talk: Can we build AI without losing control over it?","type":"lectures"},{"date":"2016-08-30T12:05:00.000Z","id":"PT5FA1AB","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/db08ef35-5c27-40b5-ad38-6ba800b3f3c4/cb122f05f55_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eIn this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris talks to economist Glenn C. Loury about racism, police violence, the Black Lives Matter movement, and related topics.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"racism-and-violence-in-america","subtitle":"","title":"Racism and Violence in America","type":"podcast_transcript"},{"date":"2016-08-28T14:24:00.000Z","id":"PT2777C0","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/03b554e1-2906-4202-ad1d-03511849dc80/f9439f67-e47f-420e-9def-231695ff93b5_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"An article by Kate Murphy in the New York Times discusses a recent controversy in the field of fMRI over statistics. Although Murphy correctly observes that flawed methods of data analysis are a problem in neuroimaging, she falsely implies that our 2009 study of the neural correlates of belief employed the methods in question.","slug":"the-new-phrenology","subtitle":"","title":"The New Phrenology?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2016-08-21T21:28:00.000Z","id":"PT88C96C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/1be89d5b-cf84-4fae-970b-c3109623b9cd/707ed115491_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eIn this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris talks to physicist David Deutsch about the reach and power of human knowledge, the future of artificial intelligence, and the survival of civilization.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"surviving-the-cosmos","subtitle":"","title":"Surviving the Cosmos","type":"podcast_transcript"},{"date":"2016-08-18T17:13:00.000Z","id":"PTCC1B7F","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/73c06fd3-19c1-445c-982d-16d80a2b5de9/ebed66f7-140b-468a-845c-2ebd1467c02f_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The following is part of a speech that I think Hillary Clinton should deliver between now and November. Its purpose is to prevent a swing toward Trump by voters who find Clinton’s political correctness on the topic of Islam and jihadism a cause for concern, especially in the aftermath of any future terrorist attacks in the U.S. or Europe.","slug":"what-hillary-clinton-should-say-about-islam-and-the-war-on-terror","subtitle":"","title":"What Hillary Clinton Should Say about Islam and the “War on Terror”","type":"essays"},{"date":"2016-07-16T23:04:00.000Z","id":"PT284D87","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/b80f11f7-e190-49d6-b1fd-9f5127121963/bd41d903-59a5-431f-95e9-19be7de780ab_thumb_x2","shortDescription":" ","slug":"the-rubin-report-2","subtitle":"Sam Harris talks to Dave Rubin about politics, Islam, free will, psychedelics, meditation, AI and other topics.","title":"The Rubin Report #2","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2016-04-20T09:31:00.000Z","id":"PTF6B4B4","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/ae95e17e-593d-4c86-8850-9349b3d40225/b061e8755d5_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Known as “Mad Max” for his unorthodox ideas and passion for adventure, Max Tegmark’s scientific interests range from precision cosmology to the ultimate nature of reality, all explored in his new popular book Our Mathematical Universe.","slug":"the-multiverse-you-you-you-you","subtitle":"","title":"The Multiverse \u0026 You (\u0026 You \u0026 You \u0026 You…)","type":"podcast_transcript"},{"date":"2016-04-06T14:50:00.000Z","id":"PT2CF388","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/3e7ab4c4-0856-4bb1-9e15-15aaafc740c6/8738b286-52d1-456a-b4ec-18eee381cbe5_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The following is a transcript from my Waking Up podcast (\u003ca href=\"https://www.samharris.org/podcast/item/shouldering-the-burden-of-history\"\u003e“Shouldering the Burden of History: A Crosscast with Dan Carlin”\u003c/a\u003e). The text has been lightly edited for clarity readability.","slug":"shouldering-the-burden-of-history-podcast-transcript","subtitle":"","title":"Shouldering the Burden of History: A Conversation with Dan Carlin","type":"podcast_transcript"},{"date":"2015-11-24T22:14:00.000Z","id":"PT12FE30","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/e0b6ef53-9d8e-4534-a599-b5b43c05b932/e6702910-afd1-4fc2-85ec-499f28723e7b_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"I consider Salon to be among the worst offenders of the new pseudo-journalism, and I have long maintained a personal boycott of the website. I ask my publishers to ignore any requests from its editors for interviews or for review copies of my books. And on the rare occasions that Salon publishes good work.","slug":"sam-harris-the-salon-interview","subtitle":"","title":"Sam Harris: The Salon Interview","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-10-28T08:44:00.000Z","id":"PTFAF750","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/a6ea1fd3-3811-41a3-a18c-71cde299d4de/254d4b56-8be7-415e-833b-0276edf78928_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eSam Harris and Maajid Nawaz discuss their book, Islam and the Future of Tolerance, with Tony Jones on LATELINE.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"a-war-of-ideas","subtitle":"","title":"A War of Ideas","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-10-20T08:57:00.000Z","id":"PT288AAD","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eI hesitate to promote this interview, because it shows me at the end of my patience (and I stay there for 2 hours). However, I did manage to express almost everything I think about the “regressive Left” in general and about my least-honest critics in particular.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"welcome-to-the-end-of-my-patience","subtitle":"","title":"Welcome to the End of My Patience","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-10-16T07:29:00.000Z","id":"PT940A67","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/efd23d5e-a76d-4a8a-8227-6ee4dc896203/8e581e7e-4f0c-4aec-9837-45543d227c97_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eSam Harris and Maajid Nawaz discuss their new book, \u003ci\u003eIslam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue,\u003c/i\u003e with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"talking-about-islamism-with-lawrence-odonnell1","subtitle":"","title":"Talking about Islamism with Lawrence O’Donnell","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-09-28T19:32:00.000Z","id":"PTB3F7ED","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/e867fc53-0215-4936-92fc-d7cf00f8c3ff/e462c616-d7f6-49fc-a7db-dde4cd4ca2c8_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eIf you have ten minutes to spare, I recommend watching this video, because it encapsulates better than most how difficult it is to even discuss the threat of political Islam.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"never-stop-lying","subtitle":"How to Pass as a 'Moderate Muslim' in the Media","title":"Never Stop Lying","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-09-28T18:16:00.000Z","id":"PT1623DA","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/4ad6984a-5feb-4b50-b13d-2d7cae6f5ec0/ad9b1b25-67e2-4b54-8ef5-ea7c19088f1a_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Mark Riebling has been an architect of post-9/11 “intelligence-driven policing,” co-founding and serving as research director for the Center for Policing Terrorism. He received his degree in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley and is the author of Wedge: The Secret War Between the FBI and CIA. ...","slug":"rethinking-hitlers-pope","subtitle":"A Q\u0026A With Mark Riebling","title":"Rethinking \"Hitler’s Pope\"","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-09-15T10:22:00.000Z","id":"PTBF3EEE","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/5d46addc-2e9a-471e-bce2-97d5370f4043/e3e48084-91bf-495f-af79-7c70b1d729dd_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"This panel discussion was held at Harvard’s Kennedy Forum on September 14, 2015. Sam Harris Neuroscientist; Co-founder and Chief Executive, Project Reason; Author, The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, among others Maajid Nawaz Author, Radical; Founding Chairman, Quilliam Juliette Kayyem (moderator) Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.","slug":"islam-the-future-of-tolerance","subtitle":"","title":"Islam \u0026 the Future of Tolerance","type":"debates"},{"date":"2015-09-15T09:28:00.000Z","id":"PTB75982","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/f4990e50-97c5-4681-bee4-a4f5e0ae5c5d
64/ae74dd85-4c69-4758-aced-670b316f53b3_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"By Maajid Nawaz and Sam Harris It’s time to confront Islamism head on—without cries of Islamophobia. Holding Islam up to scrutiny, rationally and ethically, must not be confused with anti-Muslim bigotry. Ours was an inauspicious first meeting. Nawaz a former Muslim extremist turned liberal reformer, had just participated in a public debate about the nature.","slug":"we-need-to-talk-about-islams-jihadism-problem","subtitle":"","title":"We Need to Talk About Islam’s Jihadism Problem","type":"debates"},{"date":"2015-09-11T10:01:00.000Z","id":"PT3895E0","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/8fba351b-2685-48a8-9583-b0ef5802d82c/512ed098-0154-436f-8e21-7ee7392bd249_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Sam Harris talks to Dave Rubin about free speech, religion, foreign policy, and other topics.","slug":"clearing-the-air-with-dave-rubin","subtitle":"","title":"Clearing the Air with Dave Rubin","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-05-31T10:20:00.000Z","id":"PT1A7650","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/130bd8ba-b28e-4de9-958f-53fa285f32aa/8c85eb04-ca7f-48df-8da6-50ad9e4a3f3e_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"My wife, Annaka Harris, has created several guided meditations designed for children (ages 6-10). Enjoy! —SH            ","slug":"guided-meditations-for-children","subtitle":"","title":"Guided Meditations for Children","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2015-05-01T11:45:00.000Z","id":"PTCC14F7","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/58283144-e389-41fb-a7c0-f3a413fd85db/74bb1c2d-00e3-4a1c-8ca1-c12b068dd668_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eSam Harris and Noam Chomsky attempt to have a conversation about the ethics of war, terrorism, state surveillance, and related topics—and fail.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"the-limits-of-discourse","subtitle":"As Demonstrated by Sam Harris and Noam Chomsky","title":"The Limits of Discourse","type":"debates"},{"date":"2015-04-13T16:49:00.000Z","id":"PTE53556","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/a4df505d-0ab8-4225-b19d-842a2462fbfc/ee934c66-c944-4143-bad2-d6c3869afbd9_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Jonathan Gottschall is a Distinguished Fellow in the English Department at Washington \u0026amp; Jefferson College. His research at the intersection of science and art has frequently been covered in outlets such as The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, Scientific American, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nature, Science,...","slug":"fighting","subtitle":"A Conversation between Sam Harris and Jonathan Gottschall","title":"Fighting","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-04-07T08:33:00.000Z","id":"PT3AD89E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/929bca77-0db3-4519-a463-970043d1efbe/1501aeca-1d9b-477b-bc4b-46014c40f544_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Johann Hari is a British journalist who has written for many of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Le Monde, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, The Nation, Slate, El Mundo, and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was an op-ed columnist for The Independent for nine years.","slug":"a-war-well-lost","subtitle":"Sam Harris and Johann Hari discuss the “war on drugs”","title":"A War Well Lost","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-03-12T08:15:00.000Z","id":"PTAEE642","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eThis video is well worth studying. It features Asim Qureshi, research director for CAGE, an Islamist front group that has managed to pass itself off as a UK human rights organization.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"theocracy-with-a-human-face","subtitle":"","title":"Theocracy with a Human Face","type":"essays"},{"date":"2015-03-09T08:27:00.000Z","id":"PTB76E19","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/9b937c5c-a6d7-433e-90ed-19ff3bd51863/3d3c56fb-1afd-43a1-9e7a-18634477fa2e_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"Dr. Nina L. Shapiro is the director of pediatric otolaryngology and a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. A graduate of Harvard Medical School and Cornell University, Shapiro has been honored with several prestigious awards, including the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology Awards for Clinical and Basic Science Research, the UCLA...","slug":"the-truth-about-vaccines","subtitle":"A Conversation with Nina L. Shapiro","title":"The Truth About Vaccines","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-03-04T11:11:00.000Z","id":"PT622D25","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/becb80c3-fc9f-4ca5-9993-64b15a4263e7/4bcc7e87-9948-4a16-8cfe-51b5373f6a24_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Graeme Wood writes for The Atlantic, where he covers a wide range of subjects, including education, science, books, and politics, and he has reported frequently from the Middle East since the early 2000s. In the March issue of the magazine, he published a lengthy investigation of the ideology of the so-called Islamic State.","slug":"the-true-believers","subtitle":"Sam Harris and Graeme Wood discuss the Islamic State","title":"The True Believers","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-02-28T12:51:00.000Z","id":"PTD67404","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Episode Info Sam Harris gets back in the VBW ring for another round on moral responsibility, ethical theories, and the grounds for our obligations to other people. Are we at a genuine stalemate when it comes to blame and desert? Is Tamler a closet consequentialist? Is Sam a closet pluralist?.","slug":"very-bad-wizards-interview-2","subtitle":"Sam Harris, David Pizarro, and Tamler Sommers keep talking","title":"Very Bad Wizards Interview #2","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-02-27T08:32:00.000Z","id":"PTE206AE","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/63d495ff-b033-4d40-856b-cd08143eef7d/74fab057-25f6-4fbd-a7a2-52e029cf74a4_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Mick Ebeling is a film/television/commercial producer, philanthropist, technology trailblazer, author, entrepreneur, and public speaker. He was one of Advertising Age’s “Top 50 Most Creative People of 2014” and winner of the 2014 Muhammad Ali Humanitarian of the Year Award. Ebeling is CEO of Not Impossible Labs, an organization that develops creative solutions to real-world problems.","slug":"the-art-and-science-of-the-possible","subtitle":"An Interview with Mick Ebeling","title":"The Art and Science of the Possible","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-01-26T15:38:00.000Z","id":"PT98498D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/105facf4-ab3d-4a77-b66e-4058fabdbc87/11dfb06b-ce87-48a7-85c7-fe4d557b444c_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Michael Shermer is the Publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University. His latest book is The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom. Michael was kind enough to...","slug":"on-being-right-about-right-and-wrong","subtitle":"An Interview with Michael Shermer","title":"On Being Right about Right and Wrong","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2015-01-16T22:43:00.000Z","id":"PTFA8629","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/90e0695e-d793-43a8-87c1-5636df61d41c/13dbb73b-5199-480b-b19d-e760313fcc48_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"It seems increasingly likely that we will one day build machines that possess superhuman intelligence. We need only continue to produce better computers—which we will, unless we destroy ourselves or meet our end some other way. We already know that it is possible for mere matter to acquire “general intelligence”.","slug":"can-we-avoid-a-digital-apocalypse","subtitle":"A Response to the 2015 Edge Question","title":"Can We Avoid a Digital Apocalypse?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-12-16T19:23:00.000Z","id":"PTEE7A11","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"0:00-47:00—Intro and costs and benefits of religion 47:00-1:17:00—Drugs, the self, free will 1:17:30-end—Blame, guilt, vengeance, moral responsibility David Pizarro is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. ","slug":"the-very-bad-wizards-interview-1","subtitle":"Sam Harris, David Pizarro, and Tamler Sommers talk (and then talk some more)","title":"The Very Bad Wizards Interview #1","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2014-12-03T20:06:00.000Z","id":"PTED6427","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/30e58318-8599-4922-be03-377a30a3d6cc/5b805371-6d0d-489d-b6e6-f0d62da1835d_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He is the author of Living the Secular Life, Faith No More, and Society Without God. He has also edited several volumes, including Atheism and Secularity, Sex and Religion, and The Social Theory of W.E.B. Du Bois.","slug":"the-frontiers-of-secularism","subtitle":"An Interview with Phil Zuckerman","title":"The Frontiers of Secularism","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2014-11-04T20:52:00.000Z","id":"PT7788DC","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/fa95be45-e877-45cb-a4e2-2368fc9eff9c/8755c5cc-e3a4-4264-9506-559db18928ce_thumb_x2","shortDescription":" ","slug":"meditation-and-the-nature-of-the-self","subtitle":"A Conversation Between Sam Harris and Dan Harris at the Rubin Museum","title":"Meditation and the Nature of the Self","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2014-10-23T20:13:00.000Z","id":"PT764738","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/b36ccae4-3c71-4e8b-8bff-a25bb54c8160/721b4855-746f-4f6b-b300-979f38ed6c79_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"  I recently sat down with Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks to discuss my most controversial views about Islam, the war on terror, and related topics. It was, of necessity, a defensive performance on my part—more like a deposition than an ordinary conversation.","slug":"the-young-turks-interview","subtitle":"","title":"The Young Turks Interview","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2014-10-20T07:54:00.000Z","id":"PTAB606F","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/2b3084e2-d3fd-4f0e-bd94-fc6995e08b5f/4024d33e-1f6b-4102-8b65-d3e9832dea45_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"1. C.J. Werleman, a writer for Salon and Alternet, has made a habit of publicly misrepresenting my views. 2. When I first noticed this behavior, I contacted him, initiating a brief and unpleasant email exchange. 3. After that exchange, Werleman went on to misrepresent my views with even greater fervor. 4.","slug":"just-the-facts","subtitle":"A Response to a Charge of Plagiarism","title":"Just the Facts","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2014-10-12T13:18:00.000Z","id":"PTB669DD","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/cde85e79-92e3-45d7-85db-02ff3285cdca/14e7ec7f-daaa-45b1-821b-79f746cb27f5_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Let me briefly illustrate how this works. Although I could cite hundreds of examples from the past two weeks alone, here is what I woke up to this morning: Some person who goes by the name of @dan_verg_ on Twitter took the most easily misunderstood sentence in The End of Faith out of (its absolutely...","slug":"on-the-mechanics-of-defamation","subtitle":"","title":"On the Mechanics of Defamation","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-10-08T11:40:00.000Z","id":"PT0A3250","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/0864acde-52aa-4ee1-b905-a6b9f2f0c116/b0b46c81-a838-4ad4-81a1-ffc1f742df51_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"From time to time one discovers a person so good at his job that it is almost impossible to imagine him doing anything else. I recently had this experience listening to Dan Carlin’s podcast Hardcore History. Carlin’s way of speaking is so in tune with his subject, and his enthusiasm so contagious.","slug":"dan-carlins-hardcore-history","subtitle":"A Very Strong Recommendation","title":"Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-10-07T10:32:00.000Z","id":"PTE294B5","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/58e5fc13-df7b-46c2-8296-98d32865af52/9944dd60-ee3f-4f76-82b6-706b9aada902_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"My recent collision with Ben Affleck on Bill Maher’s show, Real Time, has provoked an extraordinary amount of controversy. It seems a postmortem is in order. For those who haven’t seen the show, most of what I write here won’t make sense unless you watch my segment: So what happened there?.","slug":"can-liberalism-be-saved-from-itself","subtitle":"","title":"Can Liberalism Be Saved From Itself?","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2014-09-17T21:42:00.000Z","id":"PT0E2B2C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/0acfb352-1bfd-4980-9452-3ed32b6c48dc/ac7dbf9e-273a-4889-9e0f-3ba0a157078e_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Dan Harris is a co-anchor of Nightline and the weekend edition of Good Morning America on ABC News. He has reported from all over the world, covering wars in Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, and Iraq, and producing investigative reports in Haiti, Cambodia, and the Congo. He has also spent many years covering religion in America, despite the...","slug":"taming-the-mind","subtitle":"A Conversation with Dan Harris","title":"Taming the Mind","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2014-09-15T08:24:00.000Z","id":"PT115E73","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/684d18ea-2857-42b7-a18c-df4299978391/d2e79add-7368-4762-add4-75a91f9783ee_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I was recently interviewed onstage at George Washington University by Michelle Boorstein, a religion reporter for the Washington Post. The next day, Boorstein published an article summarizing our conversation, in which she excerpted a few quotations that made me appear somewhat sexist. I believe that these quotations are accurate, but they are also incomplete and misleading. Boorstein seemed to anticipate that they would spark a little controversy, and they have.","slug":"im-not-the-sexist-pig-youre-looking-for","subtitle":"","title":"“I’m Not the Sexist Pig You’re Looking For”","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-09-10T20:57:00.000Z","id":"PT50DBFC","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/b060a658-fb96-499c-a556-16f0b08d971f/047df83e-4842-4cf1-bd15-e2b448a1f363_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eAs an atheist, I cannot help wondering when the scrim of pretense and delusion will be finally burned away—either by the clear light of reason or by a surfeit of horror meted out to innocents by the parties of God.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"sleepwalking-toward-armageddon","subtitle":"","title":"Sleepwalking Toward Armageddon","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-08-27T13:03:00.000Z","id":"PT514E88","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"In recent weeks, Israeli bombs have rained down on Gaza, and images of the resulting death and destruction have inflamed world o
64pinion. Never mind that the government in Gaza is run by Hamas, an avowedly genocidal organization that uses its own civilians as human shields. Nor does it matter that some of this carnage seems...","slug":"dead-babies-are-not-an-argument","subtitle":"Commentary on Paul Bloom's \"Against Empathy\"","title":"“Dead babies are not an argument”","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-08-12T09:42:00.000Z","id":"PTE12C8F","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/3dcbce46-3821-40da-b361-f05c2a04e988/62b86dc0-ebf8-4b7d-b4af-86fcd99fd13b_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The following is an edited transcript of a 90-minute telephone conversation that took place on August 6, 2014. I hope readers find it useful.—SH *  *  * Harris: First, Andrew, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to speak with me. As you know, this began with a blog post I wrote to...","slug":"making-sense-of-gaza","subtitle":"A Conversation Between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan","title":"Making Sense of Gaza","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2014-06-06T07:57:00.000Z","id":"PTF15802","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/81d2c814-d44e-4039-a1ca-001cbfdd4211/3f72514e-0ece-4e19-aa56-11de132045ca_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I’d like to begin, once again, by congratulating Ryan Born for winning our essay contest. The points he raised certainly merit a response. Also, I should alert readers to a change in the expected format of this debate: Originally, I had planned to have an extended conversation with the winning author, with Russell Blackford serving...","slug":"clarifying-the-landscape","subtitle":"A Response to Ryan Born","title":"Clarifying the Moral Landscape","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-05-31T08:26:00.000Z","id":"PT9AA0F4","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/e37f75cc-2f24-44f6-821c-2a2910d42206/d31311de-67b5-4d25-9e15-bc8b628ca323_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eThe Moral Landscape Challenge: The Winning Essay\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"the-moral-landscape-challenge","subtitle":"The Winning Essay","title":"The Moral Landscape Challenge","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2014-05-26T18:26:00.000Z","id":"PT19537E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/8debcdb8-581c-404b-9430-c83ea38d0a61/a3af3d58-ad6a-4306-8359-c5700eb7c97e_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I can now say, at the advanced age of 47, that I no longer take my health for granted. In truth, I’ve always been a bit of a hypochondriac—but, as any hypochondriac aware of the relevant science can tell you, I am perfectly justified in this. If I wash my hands more often than your...","slug":"adventures-in-the-land-of-illness","subtitle":"","title":"Adventures in the Land of Illness","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-05-08T09:44:00.000Z","id":"PTA35036","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/eb7bcdd3-9463-4a01-97aa-38f6ac2db31a/016bdafa-f27a-406f-b236-bf8ba42ee279_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in Mogadishu in 1969. The daughter of a political opponent of the Somali dictatorship, she lived in exile, moving from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia and then to Kenya. Like 98 percent of Somali girls, Ayaan was subjected to female genital mutilation. She embraced Islam while she was growing up, but...","slug":"lifting-the-veil-of-islamophobia","subtitle":"A Conversation with Ayaan Hirsi Ali","title":"Lifting the Veil of “Islamophobia”","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2014-03-25T11:13:00.000Z","id":"PTAAD545","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/24780ed3-ff75-419d-8135-98c2a1b07bfe/b243b1f8-6c8d-4739-8bbd-b924af745659_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I am often asked what will replace organized religion. The answer, I believe, is nothing and everything. Nothing need replace its ludicrous and divisive doctrines—such as the idea that Jesus will return to earth and hurl unbelievers into a lake of fire, or that death in defense of Islam is the highest good. These are...","slug":"the-path-between-pseudo-spirituality-and-pseudo-science","subtitle":"","title":"The Path Between Pseudo-Spirituality and Pseudo-Science","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-03-10T12:24:00.000Z","id":"PT66CC82","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/59bacc0b-9aac-488f-b9f1-dc7a3bed7585/76355886-2cb5-4225-9880-fd7ae0d5cd67_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"Peter Watson is an intellectual historian, journalist, and the author of thirteen books, including The German Genius, The Medici Conspiracy, and The Great Divide. He has written for The Sunday Times, The New York Times, the Observer, and the Spectator. He lives in London. He was kind enough to answer a few question about his...","slug":"the-significance-of-our-insignificance","subtitle":"An Interview with Peter Watson","title":"The Significance of Our Insignificance","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2014-02-19T22:25:00.000Z","id":"PT96FF2A","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/91a3859c-a025-4ae3-b542-fda095286120/0bd66d27-adb7-4e9d-9bfb-3f3ad076f9ae_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"My recent collision with Daniel Dennett on the topic of free will has caused me to reflect on how best to publicly resolve differences of opinion. In fact, this has been a recurring theme of late. In August, I launched the Moral Landscape Challenge, an essay contest in which I invited readers to attack my...","slug":"the-pleasure-of-changing-my-mind","subtitle":"","title":"The Pleasure of Changing My Mind","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-02-12T14:27:00.000Z","id":"PTE85CDF","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/2f4a06f8-4a84-4070-950a-6e3e93ede4d0/b8fa1791-4e68-45f5-a395-d2530913b2c4_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Dear Dan— I’d like to thank you for taking the time to review Free Will at such length. Publicly engaging me on this topic is certainly preferable to grumbling in private. Your writing is admirably clear, as always, which worries me in this case, because we appear to disagree about a great many things, including...","slug":"the-marionettes-lament","subtitle":"A Response to Daniel Dennett","title":"The Marionette’s Lament","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-01-29T14:39:00.000Z","id":"PT7FC2B3","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/3b44df63-812f-481f-aa50-7b3ceea4b086/82cd34f9-dff9-488a-bb4f-75332c8ffb72_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"My next book, Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion, will be published by Simon \u0026amp; Schuster in September. This is the third cover that David Drummond has created for me (along with those for Lying and Free Will). Great job,  David!","slug":"coming-in-september1","subtitle":"","title":"Coming in September","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2014-01-26T13:58:00.000Z","id":"PT9BEA51","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/09023d9c-65f0-4777-b7df-c7d9f25cb23f/ba094ea2-7075-45c7-9b1f-2153667f5439_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Daniel Dennett and I agree about many things, but we do not agree about free will. Dan has been threatening to set me straight on this topic for several years now, and I have always encouraged him to do so, preferably in public and in writing. He has finally produced a review of my book...","slug":"reflections-on-free-will","subtitle":"A Review by Daniel C. Dennett","title":"Reflections on FREE WILL","type":"essays"},{"date":"2014-01-14T07:28:00.000Z","id":"PT44ACF6","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/1fac91c3-6be4-4b8e-b4b7-38f3c01a2826/0f881ef3-9da2-49e4-887b-3c949770ad90_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"From Edge.org: Science advances by discovering new things and developing new ideas. Few truly new ideas are developed without abandoning old ones first. As theoretical physicist Max Planck (1858-1947) noted, “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and...","slug":"our-narrow-definition-of-science","subtitle":"My Response to the 2014 Edge Question ","title":"Our Narrow Definition of “Science”","type":"essays"},{"date":"2013-12-14T10:16:00.000Z","id":"PTA462F7","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/c8ef824d-78df-4ccf-a23e-bb2ecd5c5def/5e115ae0-d559-457c-8888-ac00cd6365b6_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"In 2010, John Brockman and the Edge Foundation held a conference entitled “The New Science of Morality.” I attended along with Roy Baumeister, Paul Bloom, Joshua D. Greene, Jonathan Haidt, Marc Hauser, Joshua Knobe, Elizabeth Phelps, and David Pizarro. Some of our conversations have now been published in a book (along with many interesting essays)...","slug":"thinking-about-go","subtitle":"","title":"Thinking about Good and Evil","type":"essays"},{"date":"2013-11-29T19:20:00.000Z","id":"PT991251","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/eeec1a32-2a2b-4703-9e30-e357ffdfb7f5/ba4a540b-587d-48c3-b97b-019c1c7c9ce1_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Peter Boghossian is a full-time faculty member in the philosophy department at Portland State University. He is also a national speaker for the Center for Inquiry, the Secular Student Alliance, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Peter was kind enough to answer a few questions about his new book, A Manual for...","slug":"street-epistemology","subtitle":"An Interview with Peter Boghossian","title":"Street Epistemology","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2013-11-18T12:15:00.000Z","id":"PT842974","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/3f375f5e-7aee-4dce-8f04-839d22d19a4c/26f7ea58-736b-4e56-9a01-4223fbc184f4_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Last Christmas, my friends Mark and Jessica spent the morning opening presents with their daughter, Rachel, who had just turned four. After a few hours of excitement, feelings of holiday lethargy and boredom descended on the family—until Mark suddenly had a brilliant idea for how they could have a lot more fun. Jessica was reading...","slug":"the-high-cost-of-tiny-lies","subtitle":"","title":"The High Cost of Tiny Lies","type":"essays"},{"date":"2013-11-12T10:13:00.000Z","id":"PTD6CC3D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/39e03648-c68f-46c3-bf68-d8716a4087eb/052179b4-c375-484d-8772-2a3614272715_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He is a past president of the Society for...","slug":"the-roots-of-good-and-evil","subtitle":"An Interview with Paul Bloom","title":"The Roots of Good and Evil","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2013-11-01T10:56:00.000Z","id":"PTB92DE7","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Watch the above video. (Then watch it again.) And then read the (unedited and uncorrected) description of this footage written by the organizers of this Muslim “peace conference”: When Muslim organizations invite Shaykhs who speak openly about the values of Islam, the Islamophobic western media starts murdering the character of that organization and the invited...","slug":"islam-or-islamophobia2","subtitle":"","title":"Islam or Islamophobia?","type":"debates"},{"date":"2013-10-11T09:47:00.000Z","id":"PT54E82C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/128a29ef-ec61-4382-bd5c-74313e0b0a7f/829c7742-9143-4e1a-a23a-004a357efd4f_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"A young man enters a public place—a school, a shopping mall, an airport—carrying a small arsenal. He begins killing people at random. He has no demands, and no one is spared. Eventually, the police arrive, and after an excruciating delay as they marshal their forces, the young man is brought down.  This has happened many...","slug":"no-ordinary-violence","subtitle":"","title":"No Ordinary Violence","type":"essays"},{"date":"2013-09-24T20:24:00.000Z","id":"PTEC461C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/95c481ed-3596-4bff-a983-7d5244b93db2/8fba373f-2bb7-4de6-b295-3bb7d5a6c34a_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Sean B. Carroll is the author of Remarkable Creatures, a finalist for the National Book Award; The Making of the Fittest, winner of the Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Award; and Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Carroll also writes a monthly feature, “Remarkable Creatures,” for the New York Times’ Science Times. An internationally known scie
64ntist and...","slug":"brave-genius","subtitle":"An Interview with Sean B. Carroll","title":"Courage and Reason","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2013-09-16T13:13:00.000Z","id":"PTD72B52","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/5a68ba0d-a25e-40e2-8a69-7b6050b54243/51f462d5-7007-428c-bd32-e2961e880f45_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I am very happy to announce that my wife and editor, Annaka Harris, has published her first book. The purpose of I Wonder is to teach very young children (and their parents) to cherish the feeling of “not knowing” as the basis of all discovery. In a world riven by false certainties, I can think...","slug":"i-wonder","subtitle":"","title":"I Wonder","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2013-08-31T15:10:00.000Z","id":"PT8DBC9C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/6218515b-c254-4343-8c1c-98f29cab51d7/b9f5322d-6392-4025-91c3-bd8a620d54ef_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"It has been nearly three years since The Moral Landscape was first published in English, and in that time it has been attacked by readers and nonreaders alike. Many seem to have judged from the resulting cacophony that the book’s central thesis was easily refuted. However, I have yet to encounter a substantial criticism that...","slug":"the-moral-landscape-challenge1","subtitle":"","title":"The Moral Landscape Challenge","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2013-08-13T08:28:00.000Z","id":"PT537A63","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/2e57237c-eaac-4dcf-b845-b271354f76e5/0fc0ccee-9472-41c3-aabc-786e3f5fdf03_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Participants: Steven Graff Levine has specialized in California state criminal law for more than 23 years. He was a Los Angeles County district attorney for 13 years, a staff lawyer for the California Supreme Court for three years, and now has an ongoing criminal law defense practice to help those in need of legal assistance...","slug":"self-defense-and-the-law","subtitle":"A Roundtable Interview","title":"Self-Defense and the Law","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2013-07-31T16:27:00.000Z","id":"PTED3C28","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/11dbdddc-be5f-44d6-ab7f-1587a69133b4/0b2f0b36-eb01-4521-ac72-e41b17df9e46_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Many readers continue to express confusion—even outrage and anguish—over my position on free will. Some are convinced that my view is self-contradictory. Others are persuaded of its truth but find the truth upsetting. They say that if cutting through the illusion of free will undermines hatred, it must undermine love as well. They worry about...","slug":"free-will-and-the-reality-of-love","subtitle":"","title":"Free Will and the Reality of Love","type":"essays"},{"date":"2013-06-09T11:50:00.000Z","id":"PTCA3EF8","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/019fe1f0-8664-47c2-8168-fd4711f5c522/8dbd45bd-f52e-481b-b9dc-1b0461ad6746_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I have long struggled to understand how smart, well-educated liberals can fail to perceive the unique dangers of Islam. In The End of Faith, I argued that such people don’t know what it’s like to really believe in God or Paradise—and hence imagine that no one else actually does. The symptoms of this blindness can...","slug":"islam-and-the-misuses-of-ecstasy","subtitle":"","title":"Islam and the Misuses of Ecstasy","type":"essays"},{"date":"2013-04-29T09:03:00.000Z","id":"PTA565EB","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/aebcc57d-6f98-48b6-982d-6be848a83b98/8915edcd-7f4f-4b2b-bf83-443db9b15dba_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I will take your questions from 6-7pm (Eastern), Monday 4/29. Please use the Twitter hashtag #AskSamAnything to participate. Possible topics include: the mind/brain, science v. religion, free will, moral truth, meditation, terrorism, consciousness, gurus and cults, publishing, lying, etc. Note: If you are following the conversation live, you will need to keep refreshing your browser...","slug":"twitter-ama-4-29-13-asksamanything","subtitle":"","title":"Twitter Q\u0026A 4/29/13: #AskSamAnything","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2013-04-20T12:14:00.000Z","id":"PTDF5DD3","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/a5410840-fd45-412c-8997-2300e5837be8/ecdf0381-f08f-4028-baeb-5f42bae86
64d5c_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"As I wrote in the introduction to Lying, Ronald A. Howard was one of my favorite professors in college, and his courses on ethics, social systems, and decision making did much to shape my views on these topics. Last week, he was kind enough to speak with me at length about the ethics of lying.","slug":"the-path-of-honesty","subtitle":"A Conversation with Ronald A. Howard","title":"The Straight Path","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2013-04-08T08:18:00.000Z","id":"PT59F254","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/35e8ff2e-a63d-47fc-9f30-a913fbce7d46/3a81ec99-81f9-4115-bebc-d9b51d8b3856_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"A few of the subjects I explore in my work have inspired an unusual amount of controversy. Some of this results from real differences of opinion or honest confusion, but much of it is due to the fact that certain of my detractors deliberately misrepresent my views. I have responded to the most consequential of...","slug":"on-islamophobia-and-libels","subtitle":"","title":"On “Islamophobia” and Other Libels","type":"essays"},{"date":"2013-04-04T18:15:00.000Z","id":"PT7D998C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/441d9ec0-13ed-4fa3-861f-2225f5acb231/191f732e-b6ff-4cd5-8953-d690af92fc6c_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Version 2.6 (July 29, 2019) A few of the subjects I explore in my work have inspired an unusual amount of controversy. Some of this results from real differences of opinion or honest confusion, but much of it is due to the fact that certain of my detractors deliberately misrepresent my views. The purpose of...","slug":"response-to-controversy","subtitle":"","title":"Response to Controversy","type":"essays"},{"date":"2013-04-02T13:24:00.000Z","id":"PT8EC995","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/b99ef849-f679-46a9-82dd-7cdabdbf3954/f3a26fa9-69c4-4b8d-a555-4daadd8a5725_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I’m up against a book deadline and have had to step away from blogging for a few months. One of the benefits of this time, as well as one of its frustrations, is that I’ve had to ignore the usual ephemera that might have otherwise captured my attention. For instance, in recent days both Salon...","slug":"dear-fellow-liberal2","subtitle":"An Exchange with Glenn Greenwald","title":"Dear Fellow Liberal","type":"debates"},{"date":"2013-03-30T11:04:00.000Z","id":"PTB82250","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/54bcf7ba-c1f2-4e17-bd97-ddf8b47b6f56/0c947541-5b5f-40a1-a7d8-00e20cf256f4_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"A.C. Grayling is Master of the New College of the Humanities (London). He is the author of the acclaimed Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan, Descartes: The Life and Times of a Genius, Toward the Light of Liberty: The Struggles for Freedom...","slug":"the-god-argument","subtitle":"An Interview with A.C. Grayling","title":"The God Argument","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2013-03-08T11:43:00.000Z","id":"PT0CFBA8","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/16fb3d07-1657-4bb4-b092-169e326bea01/60b0da42-c9e4-48af-9dd5-95de545ef5e1_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"A new edition of my short book, Lying, will be published as a hardcover in the fall. The book will contain responses to the best questions and criticisms I receive from readers, and this new material will be included in a revised edition of the e-book. So this is an appeal to the wisdom of...","slug":"a-print-edition-of-lying","subtitle":"","title":"A Print Edition of LYING","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2013-01-22T13:07:00.000Z","id":"PT583245","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"WHAT *SHOULD* WE BE WORRIED ABOUT? Imagine that a young, white man has been falsely convicted of a serious crime and sentenced to five years in a maximum-security penitentiary. He has no history of violence and is, understandably, terrified at the prospect of living among murderers and rapists. Hearing the prison gates shut behind him,...","slug":"the-power-of-bad-incentives","subtitle":"A Response to the 2013 Edge Question","title":"The Power of Bad Incentives","type":"essays"},{"date":"2013-01-06T22:51:00.000Z","id":"PT60B512","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/0c841676-1e66-414a-be30-cac825d362b1/fa04921e-6332-479d-bbb0-0f9b3e594b59_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"Having read many hundreds of responses to my recent article on guns, and hundreds more to an earlier post on self-defense, I now realize that there are differences in temperament across which it may be impossible to communicate about the reality of human violence. Many people simply do not want to think about this topic...","slug":"faq-on-violence","subtitle":"","title":"FAQ on Violence","type":"essays"},{"date":"2013-01-02T14:55:00.000Z","id":"PTE1D8B9","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/32aef8e4-f9ca-4223-8a40-f861c41cf47f/20fb6362-a1d8-423b-a3e2-6fa8bbadfa7e_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Fantasists and zealots can be found on both sides of the debate over guns in America. On the one hand, many gun-rights advocates reject even the most sensible restrictions on the sale of weapons to the public. On the other, proponents of stricter gun laws often seem unable to understand why a good person would...","slug":"the-riddle-of-the-gun","subtitle":"","title":"The Riddle of the Gun","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-11-11T16:20:00.000Z","id":"PT885584","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/bf8e5eda-9963-4746-9922-fb362e28a927/6d52037d-a823-4ed3-b618-877a664d2537_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"One cannot travel far in spiritual circles without meeting people who are fascinated by the “near-death experience” (NDE). The phenomenon has been described as follows: Frequently recurring features include feelings of peace and joy; a sense of being out of one’s body and watching events going on around one’s body and, occasionally, at some distant...","slug":"science-on-the-brink-of-death","subtitle":"","title":"Science on the Brink of Death","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-10-12T10:37:00.000Z","id":"PT0F17D6","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/64760441-4e68-4601-9de6-47690103b148/0d8b2beb-086a-4c6b-bc9e-d6068b6081cc_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Once upon a time, a neurosurgeon named Eben Alexander contracted a bad case of bacterial meningitis and fell into a coma. While immobile in his hospital bed, he experienced visions of such intense beauty that they changed everything—not just for him, but for all of us, and for science as a whole. According to Newsweek,...","slug":"this-must-be-heaven","subtitle":"","title":"This Must Be Heaven","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-09-18T22:46:00.000Z","id":"PTDB8C60","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/c7e24065-845c-43e3-98f5-15683a280624/b2af4882-e55e-44ec-901e-630b52fb35b7_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The latest wave of Muslim hysteria and violence has now spread to over twenty countries. The walls of our embassies and consulates have been breached, their precincts abandoned to triumphant mobs, and many people have been murdered—all in response to an unwatchable Internet video titled Innocence of Muslims. Whether over a film, a cartoon, a...","slug":"on-the-freedom-to-offend-an-imaginary-god","subtitle":"","title":"On the Freedom to Offend an Imaginary God","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-09-09T12:21:00.000Z","id":"PTB6BDA9","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/ac25fe22-0742-40d3-8792-67573e73891e/49e970b5-437e-46dd-8234-b6660dc9205f_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"One of the most common objections to my position on free will is that accepting it could have terrible consequences, psychologically or socially. This is a strange rejoinder, analogous to what many religious people allege against atheism: Without a belief in God, human beings will cease to be good to one another. Both responses abandon...","slug":"life-without-free-will","subtitle":"","title":"Life Without Free Will","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-08-07T07:48:00.000Z","id":"PT920A82","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/41f107cd-1058-49fc-b056-115ca97e7e60/700c9972-cc98-485d-b8c5-8ff65aabaafa_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"The Internet powerfully enables the spread of good ideas, but it works the same magic for bad ones—and it allows distortions of fact and opinion to become permanent features of our intellectual landscape. Consequently, the migration of our cultural discourse into cyberspace can injure a person’s reputation in ways that may be impossible to remedy.","slug":"wrestling-the-troll","subtitle":"","title":"Wrestling the Troll","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-07-31T19:48:00.000Z","id":"PTEEF356","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/bd6ac903-6b6d-4491-9da5-5235e6f135bb/93516a2c-7546-4e13-89e3-aa6deb56a64e_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The science journalist and author Jonah Lehrer seems to have driven his career off a cliff by, of all things, putting words into the mouth of Bob Dylan. He has resigned his post at The New Yorker and copies of his most recent bestseller have been recalled by his publisher. I don’t know Lehrer personally,...","slug":"the-fall-of-jonah-lehrer","subtitle":"","title":"The Fall of Jonah Lehrer","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-06-27T17:14:00.000Z","id":"PT05E026","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/b81c3c08-5167-4263-9a01-59be09d03783/d55e9ed4-1747-4a2e-8d69-10f288ef594e_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"In writing my next book, I will have to confront the animosity that many people feel for the term “spiritual.” Whenever I use the word—as in referring to meditation as a “spiritual practice”—I inevitably hear from fellow skeptics and atheists who think that I have committed a grievous error. The word “spirit” comes from the...","slug":"a-plea-for-spirituality","subtitle":"","title":"In Defense of “Spiritual”","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-06-23T07:39:00.000Z","id":"PT69ADA8","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/6373b73e-2ef1-48d7-8915-1de82223d1f5/cda6e4e6-a6dc-41bd-b8fa-4bc20ad73aaf_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I am currently under a book deadline, so long blog posts will probably be few and far between until the end of the year. The working title of the book is Waking Up: Science, Skepticism, and Spirituality. This title could very well change, but this should give you some indication of what I’m up to.","slug":"look-into-my-eyes","subtitle":"","title":"Look Into My Eyes","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-06-07T09:01:00.000Z","id":"PT6B2625","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/7cdf1dd3-6673-42b0-9db3-274463b9f7f6/8edbf75c-784c-47a2-9de9-2e3c3fcaf5db_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Lisa Randall is one of today’s most influential theoretical physicists and a Professor of Physics at Harvard University. Her work has been featured in Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Vogue, the Economist, Scientific American, Discover, New Scientist, Science, Nature, and elsewhere. Randall is a member of the...","slug":"welcome-to-the-machine","subtitle":"Annaka Harris interviews Lisa Randall","title":"Fundamental Science and the Big Machine","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2012-05-25T07:13:00.000Z","id":"PT8AA316","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/a4cdd87e-261d-4682-b89f-dbb170f1c3ca/79f23ffd-8ccc-4437-905e-0e77ad5d97bb_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I recently wrote two articles in defense of “profiling” in the context of airline security (1 \u0026amp; 2), arguing that the TSA should stop doing secondary screenings of people who stand no reasonable chance of being Muslim jihadists. I knew this proposal would be controversial, but I seriously underestimated how inflamed the response would be.","slug":"to-profile-or-not-to-profile","subtitle":"A Debate between Sam Harris and Bruce Schneier","title":"To Profile or Not to Profile?","type":"debates"},{"date":"2012-05-22T10:51:00.000Z","id":"PT74AEF9","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/351add91-58ee-47ff-8a35-f95f8f48bfe6/38879b86-b755-4645-af31-6089bbf032fe_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"Bruce Hood is currently the Director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre at the University of Bristol. He has been a research fellow at Cambridge University and University College London, a visiting scientist at MIT, and a faculty professor at Harvard. He has been awarded an Alfred Sloan Fellowship in neuroscience, the Young Investigator Award...","slug":"the-illusion-of-the-self2","subtitle":"An Interview with Bruce Hood","title":"The Illusion of the Self","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2012-05-08T11:04:00.000Z","id":"PT0D8EC1","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/76dac251-8330-493d-a150-a2cb524af1ce/01ceb00e-65f8-4860-96dc-c0b853f42d77_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Bruce Schneier is a highly-respected expert on security who has written for The New York Times, The Economist, The Guardian, Forbes, Wired, Nature, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, and other major publications. His most recent book is Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that...","slug":"the-trouble-with-profiling","subtitle":"A guest post by Bruce Schneier","title":"The Trouble with Profiling","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-05-07T11:50:00.000Z","id":"PTC88622","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/f256502c-67f9-4fc0-86e8-6d1eafb2a87f/d29dda7a-8bf5-4d44-973d-ea275b71f647_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I recently wrote a short essay about airline security (“In Defense of Profiling”) that provoked a ferocious backlash from readers. In publishing this piece, I’m afraid that I broke one of my cardinal rules of time (and sanity) management: Not everything worth saying is worth saying oneself. I learned this the hard way once before,...","slug":"on-knowing-your-enemy29","subtitle":"","title":"On Knowing Your Enemy","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-05-02T11:10:00.000Z","id":"PT574D3C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/131c406a-cec5-4e01-999b-67ff3dd6fcfa/90af6381-b862-4d27-a1f9-f216d24e5164_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Richard J. Davidson is the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior and the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, and Founder and Chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University...","slug":"training-the-emotional-brain","subtitle":"An Interview with Richard J. Davidson","title":"Training the Emotional Brain","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2012-04-28T14:50:00.000Z","id":"PT889F90","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/05fa488c-7d21-43e3-b7e1-19ad3313e8c4/ed1154911cc_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Much has been written about how insulting and depressing it is, more than a decade after the events of 9/11, to be met by “security theater” at our nation’s airports. The current system appears so inane that one hopes it really is a sham, concealing more-ingenious intrusions into our privacy. The spirit of political correctness...","slug":"in-defense-of-profiling","subtitle":"","title":"In Defense of Profiling","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-04-05T19:02:00.000Z","id":"PTEA6BE5","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/9fb7f36f-ce68-4238-b55c-7bc31411a88b/4f4ea686-c4a7-4fb7-ae2c-d7aca867ef0f_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I have noticed that some readers continue to find my argument about the illusoriness of free will difficult to accept. Apart from religious believers who simply “know” that they have free will and that life would be meaningless without it, my most energetic critics seem to be fans of my friend Dan Dennett’s account of...","slug":"free-will-and-free-will","subtitle":"How my view differs from Daniel Dennett's","title":"Free Will and “Free Will”","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-03-13T11:05:00.000Z","id":"PT20A04D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/42b07be6-8540-446a-83b3-584659b0d6c9/a5633df7-fddc-4f91-be87-2a9d381d0569_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"I recently had a very enjoyable three-hour conversation with Joe Rogan on his podcast, where the topics ranged from jihad to probability theory to psychedelics. But I subsequently received a fair amount of abuse online for a few things I said about Islam and our adventures in the war on terror. For instance, I appear...","slug":"islam-and-the-future-of-liberalism","subtitle":"","title":"Islam and the Future of Liberalism","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-02-28T15:15:00.000Z","id":"PT5A5CD9","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/d370541b-9cb9-4bc9-bdd9-79b425d9d5fc/3e307055-fe65-4533-8e87-74ccd18c3a92_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I briefly discussed the illusion of free will in both The End of Faith and The Moral Landscape. I have since received hundreds of questions and comments from readers and learned just where the sticking points were in my original arguments. I am happy to now offer my final thoughts on the subject in the...","slug":"the-illusion-of-free-will","subtitle":"","title":"The Illusion of Free Will","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2012-02-20T08:57:00.000Z","id":"PTAB129F","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/a92228dc-47ad-4786-a0b1-1adc6cc09c29/6f14ffe6-47e1-4d5f-909d-b5587e228b2f_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Peter H. Diamandis is the founder and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation and Co-founder and Chairman of Singularity University.  He is a serial entrepreneur turned philanthropist who has started more than a dozen high-tech companies. He has degrees in molecular biology and aerospace engineering from MIT, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He...","slug":"better-than-you-think","subtitle":"An Interview with Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler","title":"Better and Better","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2012-02-16T19:38:00.000Z","id":"PTED85C9","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/43c3ad0f-23cb-4b13-8f94-e0c5c2c160f3/ddf2ebfc-81be-498d-91a2-5ec817e77a50_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Tim Prowse was a United Methodist pastor for almost 20 years, serving churches in Missouri and Indiana. Tim earned a B.A. from East Texas Baptist University, a Master of Divinity (M.Div) from Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri, and a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min) from Chicago Theological Seminary. Acknowledging his unbelief, Tim...","slug":"life-without-god","subtitle":"An Interview with Tim Prowse","title":"Life Without God","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2012-02-06T10:56:00.000Z","id":"PT0512A4","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/7676aab0-76f5-487e-b674-a482e536410e/5906021c-8873-4aa7-b247-97c415e6ba7c_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"After writing an article on the principles of self-defense, I was inundated with emails and Internet comments—many of which came from experts in the field. The response was very supportive, and I haven’t found anything of substance to amend in my original essay. However, I did take one criticism to heart: I don’t know enough...","slug":"the-pleasures-of-drowning","subtitle":"","title":"The Pleasures of Drowning","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-02-02T18:18:00.000Z","id":"PT444499","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/e1bcc96d-f56a-47ca-9680-75feaecc2815/054d8933-ed4f-4564-86b3-1e72a327103d_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"It seems to me that many nonbelievers have forgotten—or never knew—what it is like to suffer an unhappy collision with scientific rationality. We are open to good evidence and sound argument as a matter of principle, and are generally willing to follow wherever they may lead. Certain of us have made careers out of bemoaning...","slug":"the-fireplace-delusion","subtitle":"","title":"The Fireplace Delusion","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-01-15T08:56:00.000Z","id":"PT780053","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/d2c80b8a-edbd-455d-a93a-29fb2a194021/afbbac25-7c7f-44e8-9df5-f11b2c2b3c18_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"Governor Mitt Romney has yet to persuade the religious conservatives in his party that he is fit to be President of the United States. However, he could probably appease the Republican base and secure his party’s nomination if he made the following remarks prior to the South Carolina Primary: My fellow Republicans, I would like...","slug":"your-god-is-my-god","subtitle":"What Mitt Romney Could Say to Win the Republican Nomination","title":"Your God is My God","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-01-05T13:13:00.000Z","id":"PT739A40","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/a13594e7-f04e-42fc-9721-84878c4ce6c0/c6943c26-8c95-410f-8321-95643fc9bf37_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The atheist author and neuroscientist on why we’re not as free as we think. Go to article","slug":"the-free-will-delusion","subtitle":"","title":"The Free Will Delusion","type":"essays"},{"date":"2012-01-03T19:05:00.000Z","id":"PT9249AC","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/cd2fdd01-715b-4b7f-97d7-10d010100495/6b27609a-1bd5-4e20-ab5a-f3e3fba1e321_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"\u003cp\u003eLawrence M. Krauss, renowned cosmologist, popularizer of science, author of more than 300 scientific publications and 8 books,  took time to answer a few questions about his new book, A Universe from Nothing.\u003c/p\u003e","slug":"everything-and-nothing","subtitle":"An Interview with Lawrence M. Krauss","title":"Everything and Nothing","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2011-12-18T08:05:00.000Z","id":"PT9FF083","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/7a436069-3f6d-4207-8bed-c46181dc2291/7c40d32c-cd4d-49fe-ad88-16e97dc73d06_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The moment it was announced that Christopher Hitchens was sick with cancer, eulogies began spilling into print and from the podium. No one wanted to deny the possibility that he would recover, of course, but neither could we let the admiration we felt for him go unexpressed. It is a cliché to say that he...","slug":"hitch","subtitle":"","title":"Hitch","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-12-07T09:07:00.000Z","id":"PT4DA1F8","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/5d74ba16-b26e-454c-a171-a62928d82c7a/b712cd32-4040-475d-977b-d2221444ff8c_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"(Cover by David Drummond)","slug":"coming-in-february","subtitle":"","title":"COMING MARCH 6th","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2011-11-29T11:26:00.000Z","id":"PTAE9925","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/45ac56a3-7849-46cc-a18f-51541a6e5061/5a925cee-a145-4ea3-8cf0-24ec7c2d7b3a_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Daniel Kahneman is an extraordinarily interesting thinker. As a psychologist, he received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work with Amos Tversky on decision-making. Here is what Steven Pinker, my previous interview subject, recently wrote about him: Daniel Kahneman is among the most influential psych
64ologists in history and certainly the most important psychologist...","slug":"thinking-about-thinking","subtitle":"An Interview with Daniel Kahneman","title":"Thinking about Thinking","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2011-11-05T09:47:00.000Z","id":"PT2AFFA8","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/a318be29-8b04-4416-998a-4ee0742c5016/450d03f8-4d7e-49c6-9591-9110c7485266_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"As a teenager, I once had an opportunity to fly in a police helicopter over a major American city. Naively, I thought the experience might be uneventful. Perhaps there would be no crime between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. However, from the moment we were airborne, there was a fresh emergency every...","slug":"the-truth-about-violence","subtitle":"3 Principles of Self-Defense","title":"The Truth about Violence","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-10-19T16:16:00.000Z","id":"PTF97BCF","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/e19052f2-fefc-4a8d-b5aa-49104843aff9/ce6c85e8-c777-4330-8f03-4072c1ae0a0e_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The universe is filled with physical phenomena that appear devoid of consciousness. From the birth of stars and planets, to the early stages of cell division in a human embryo, the structures and processes we find in Nature seem to lack an inner life. At some point in the development of certain complex organisms, however,...","slug":"the-mystery-of-consciousness-ii","subtitle":"","title":"The Mystery of Consciousness II","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-10-11T19:42:00.000Z","id":"PT639F91","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/25f15f2c-5a81-4bc9-b9f8-1014353456bb/fb5c1217-b633-417e-a343-658f04e76912_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"You are not aware of the electrochemical events occurring at each of the trillion synapses in your brain at this moment. But you are aware, however dimly, of sights, sounds, sensations, thoughts, and moods. At the level of your experience, you are not a body of cells, organelles, and atoms; you are consciousness and its...","slug":"the-mystery-of-consciousness","
64subtitle":"","title":"The Mystery of Consciousness","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-10-03T21:28:00.000Z","id":"PT66B4B9","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/5c3614fd-08af-4e0f-aede-88d6839a6c6f/3be8bd09-3d89-4094-8fca-db7a281f2dd6_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Steven Pinker is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, the author of several magnificent books about the human mind, and one of the most influential scientists on earth. He is also my friend, an occasional mentor, and an advisor to my nonprofit foundation, Project Reason. Steve’s new book is The Better Angels of Our...","slug":"qa-with-steven-pinker","subtitle":"An Interview with Steven Pinker","title":"Twilight of Violence","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2011-09-26T16:46:00.000Z","id":"PT33AA11","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/6d5bfe6c-4723-41b1-ae68-724b91914047/4a7481e0-a3f1-45c5-a630-6bc5385fc94e_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Writers, artists, and public intellectuals are nearing some sort of precipice: Their audiences increasingly expect digital content to be free. Jaron Lanier has written and spoken about this issue with great sagacity. You can purchase his book here, which most of you will not do, or you can watch him discuss these matters for free.","slug":"the-future-of-the-book","subtitle":"","title":"The Future of the Book","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-09-15T09:24:00.000Z","id":"PT665223","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/27b35a2a-aac7-4f7e-9b64-9918c1d58527/ca4b8d42-4dfe-46a4-a0ad-5b22e786331c_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"As an undergraduate at Stanford I took a course called “The Ethical Analyst” that profoundly changed my life. It was taught by an extraordinarily gifted professor, Ronald A. Howard, and focused on a single question of practical ethics: Is it wrong to lie? At first glance, this may seem a scant foundation for an entire...","slug":"new-ebook-lying","subtitle":"","title":"Is It Wrong to Lie?","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2011-09-12T18:56:00.000Z","id":"PT0E2126","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/9fbbe1a1-b38e-427d-afa7-496866f10001/0129f25b-ea48-47cc-83f6-bbe6441c8fc2_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"It is widely believed that Thomas Jefferson was terrified of public speaking. John Adams once said of him, “During the whole time I sat with him in Congress, I never heard him utter three sentences together.” During his eight years in the White House, Jefferson seems to have limited his speechmaking to two inaugural addresses,...","slug":"the-silent-crowd-overcoming-your-fear-of-public-speaking","subtitle":"Overcoming Your Fear of Public Speaking","title":"The Silent Crowd","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-09-09T07:59:00.000Z","id":"PT0C68AE","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/cab240f8-8780-4314-921f-60bdd62a04aa/0590082e-c599-4551-966f-18db3474825b_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Yesterday my daughter asked, “Where does gravity come from?” She is two and a half years old. I could say many things on this subject—most of which she could not possibly understand—but the deep and honest answer is “I don’t know.” What if I had said, “Gravity comes from God”? That would be merely to...","slug":"september-11-2011","subtitle":"","title":"September 11, 2011","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-08-29T17:00:00.000Z","id":"PT14ADB5","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/b28aedd8-e043-4d3c-ac58-aacc7534dbd5/c3627ac6-a67c-4a4a-9a11-68170679ad2f_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I recently posted a TEDx talk by the neuroscientist David Eagleman, author of Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain and the subject of a recent profile in The New Yorker. While I admire much of what Eagleman has to say, I wrote that his espousal of “possibilianism,” in lieu of atheism, was intellectually dishonest.","slug":"whither-eagleman","subtitle":"","title":"Whither Eagleman?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-08-24T23:06:00.000Z","id":"PTE5193D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/dade0ed5-43f3-4240-b431-3dc5313258f6/68b96243-7e65-4326-abb5-c00b2065fd0f_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"Do you have too many readers of your books and articles? Want to reduce traffic on your blog? It turns out, there is a foolproof way to alienate many of your fans, quickly and at almost no cost. It took me years to discover this publishing secret, but I’ll pass it along to you for...","slug":"how-to-lose-readers-without-even-trying","subtitle":"","title":"How to Lose Readers (Without Even Trying)","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-08-17T20:34:00.000Z","id":"PTABCC2A","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/3578ea09-f22e-4802-a2da-c61dd2992499/f39435f6-6335-4530-8083-3ca5fd5c5c0b_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I’ve written before about the crisis of inequality in the United States and about the quasi-religious abhorrence of “wealth redistribution” that causes many Americans to oppose tax increases, even on the ultra rich. The conviction that taxation is intrinsically evil has achieved a sadomasochistic fervor in conservative circles—producing the Tea Party, their Republican zombies, and...","slug":"how-rich-is-too-rich","subtitle":"","title":"How Rich is Too Rich?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-08-15T07:46:51.000Z","id":"PT7CC979","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/81b1c5d3-4d64-4a0b-a5ee-ed6705391433/9d7e8f76-778f-42f8-a49c-0460b1434291_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"(Cover by David Drummond)  ","slug":"coming-in-september","subtitle":"","title":"COMING IN SEPTEMBER:","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2011-08-11T12:55:02.000Z","id":"PTCA0ED0","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"The full video is an hour long. Links to specific topics/questions are provided below: 1. Eternity and the meaning of life 0:42 2. Do we have free will?  4:43 3. How can we convince religious people to abandon their beliefs? 14:52 4. How can atheists live among the faithful? 19:09 5. How should we talk...","slug":"ask-sam-harris-anything-2","subtitle":"","title":"Ask Sam Harris Anything #2","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2011-08-07T10:07:22.000Z","id":"PT298265","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Finally, a government official speaks the truth about the Vatican. This is a wonderfully honest speech by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. For those who missed my previous essay on the crimes of the Catholic Church: Bringing the Vatican to Justice  ","slug":"the-truth-about-the-vatican","subtitle":"","title":"The Truth About the Vatican","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-07-28T13:16:00.000Z","id":"PTE62B4E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Earlier this year, Andrew Zak Williams asked public figures why they believe in God. Now it’s the turn of the atheists. Philip Pullman, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Steven Weinberg, Roger Penrose, and others respond. Go to article","slug":"faith-no-more","subtitle":"","title":"Faith No More","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-07-26T18:40:00.000Z","id":"PT497C82","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/5fa15099-728d-49a3-a3aa-9b98efcdd322/9e6ffcb7-4f7b-40e7-8c7f-50060ea87bf1_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Over at Truthdig, the celebrated journalist Chris Hedges has discovered that Christopher Hitchens and I are actually racists with a fondness for genocide. He has broken this story before—many times, in fact—but in his most recent essay he blames “secular fundamentalists” like me and Hitch for the recent terrorist atrocities in Norway. Very nice. Hedges...","slug":"response-to-chris-hedges","subtitle":"","title":"Dear Angry Lunatic: A Response to Chris Hedges","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-07-24T17:00:00.000Z","id":"PT59358F","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/f54151a6-f549-47f2-bcb5-d67ba98f4f0e/b864a907-66dc-4026-80d4-5871c802c16b_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"At certain points near the extremity of human evil it becomes difficult, and perhaps pointless, to make ethical distinctions. However, I cannot shake the feeling that detonating a large bomb in the center of a peaceful city with the intent of killing vast numbers of innocent people was the lesser of Anders Behring Breivik’s transgressions...","slug":"christian-terrorism-and-islamophobia","subtitle":"","title":"Christian Terrorism and Islamophobia","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-07-18T13:30:51.000Z","id":"PTD88B18","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/9f61a874-bb19-486a-96f4-8bfd98bf3f70/101a909d-e3f0-4bb8-acf1-8e57c77f6056_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"The above talk was sent to me by a reader and is well worth watching. In it, the neuroscientist David Eagleman says many very reasonable things and says them well. Unfortunately, on the subject of religion he appears to make a conscious effort to play the good cop to the bad cop of “the new...","slug":"the-worlds-nicest-accommodationist","subtitle":"","title":"Calling (Out) David Eagleman","type":"lectures"},{"date":"2011-07-01T12:21:00.000Z","id":"PTCD0DC6","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/204a8604-b593-4a17-a295-afaef49800f0/76806060-86eb-46ba-b812-854b88804e55_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"My friend Jerry Coyne has posted a response to my recent video Q\u0026amp;A where he raises a few points in need of clarification about meditation, transcendence, spiritual experience, etc.: This discussion continues at 21:25, when Sam criticizes atheists, scientists and secularists for failing to “connect to the character of those experiences” and for failing to...","slug":"whats-the-point-of-transcendence","subtitle":"","title":"What’s the Point of Transcendence?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-06-29T12:28:41.000Z","id":"PT7104B0","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"In which I respond to questions and comments posted on Reddit.","slug":"ask-sam-harris-anything-1","subtitle":"","title":"Ask Sam Harris Anything #1","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2011-06-14T21:38:00.000Z","id":"PTDF495D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/aaffa432-fc7d-4723-ab52-694362f16d09/595ab9cd-f649-4c96-a8b3-881abfabef2f_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"One day, you will find yourself outside this world which is like a mother’s womb. You will leave this earth to enter, while you are yet in the body, a vast expanse, and know that the words, “God’s earth is vast,” name this region from which the saints have come. —Jalal-ud-Din Rumi Many of my...","slug":"on-spiritual-truths","subtitle":"","title":"On Spiritual Truths","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-06-10T09:38:00.000Z","id":"PT06AFF7","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/2c841805-5ef0-4d2c-a25d-655d54539a90/04119c5d-f6e9-4fc3-8ec2-8e5df75b217a_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"In my last post, I suggested that Einstein shared my skepticism about free will. Nothing in my argument turned on this, of course: Several great physicists have believed in free will, and Einstein got many things wrong, both inside and outside of physics. One doesn’t argue these points on the basis of authority in any...","slug":"my-friend-einstein","subtitle":"","title":"My Friend Einstein?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-05-20T16:16:00.000Z","id":"PT826E17","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/487d9afb-5724-408f-b366-b90d617a24a1/56a4297a-d829-4afe-bf45-e60b94ca5550_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Strange bonds of trust and self-deception tend to grow between journalists and their subjects. Janet Malcolm examines these fraught encounters in a fascinating book, The Journalist and the Murderer, which focuses on the relationship between Joe McGinniss, the best-selling author of Fatal Vision, and Jeffrey MacDonald, a Green Beret physician convicted of murdering his pregnant...","slug":"the-peril-of-the-print-interview","subtitle":"","title":"The Perils of the Print Interview","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-05-10T13:05:00.000Z","id":"PTE675C6","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/037878a4-2dfa-499b-a7d2-8bb67256fad8/6273b9ad-2205-496b-a227-8b95e527b0c3_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"There are many forms of introspection and mental training that go by the name of “meditation,” and I have studied several over the years. As I occasionally speak about the benefits of these practices, people often write to ask which I recommend. Given my primary audience—students of science, secularists, nonbelievers, etc.—these queries usually come bundled...","slug":"how-to-meditate","subtitle":"","title":"How to Meditate","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-05-06T10:50:00.000Z","id":"PTD25D42","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/9c13c5e3-fd9a-479d-9f47-c6b1ab045eaf/e94c0762-e4b5-41c3-a76a-973186207827_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"There is one concern that seems to derail every discussion about my view of morality. The philosopher Russell Blackford put it this way in his review of The Moral Landscape: Why, for example, should I not prefer my own well-being, or the well-being of the people I love, to overall, or global, well-being?… Harris never...","slug":"on-matters-zero-sum","subtitle":"","title":"On Matters Zero-Sum","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-05-04T13:13:00.000Z","id":"PT48CECF","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/dcbdc625-1e94-4f22-876b-08281d01e37c/adadd68e-5947-4c48-84ca-b92f202b0a7c_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"President Obama has announced that the U.S. government will not release photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse. I don’t know which fact is more alarming, that this appears to have been a very difficult decision or that the head of the CIA believes that these photos will leak in any case. Officially placating the conspiracy...","slug":"our-dead-enemy-still-has-friends","subtitle":"","title":"Further Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-05-01T22:03:00.000Z","id":"PTFAEBA5","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/8a3388d2-4c6d-4501-bbce-0cb0059ad5f3/f141a9ed-1a55-420e-a8d5-2716f114d9e8_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I have no illusions that this will be the end of the war on terror, but it does not seem irrational to think that it could be the beginning of the end. Personally, I feel like a tumor was just removed from my brain—so present has the man been in my thoughts this last decade.","slug":"osama-bin-laden-1957-2011","subtitle":"","title":"Osama bin Laden: 1957-2011","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2011-04-30T11:54:00.000Z","id":"PTA3199B","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/18ee5537-f182-4d24-8dbf-7d5e31ffa92f/5287fc8b-a178-40da-8ffe-3f388f561f5f_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Greg Mortenson, author of the best sellers Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools, has accomplished an astonishing fall from grace. As 60 minutes first reported, and the best-selling author Jon Krakauer has since spelled out in grim detail, Mortenson offers us a rare glimpse of moral strangeness: He is a true philanthropist who...","slug":"the-strange-case-of-greg-mortenson","subtitle":"","title":"The Strange Case of Greg Mortenson","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-04-28T11:47:00.000Z","id":"PTC63678","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/ea4dbdc7-e45f-4cf6-9dda-2f71f0fc2078/1c512ff0-eaf7-45f4-81a9-2de2f5a7393b_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"I have long maintained a page on my website where I address various distortions, misunderstandings, and criticisms of my work. I take it to be either a sign of carelessness or masochism on my part that this page is the #1 Google search result for the phrase “response to controversy.”  Surely, I need not have...","slug":"why-id-rather-not-speak-about-torture1","subtitle":"","title":"Why I’d Rather Not Speak About Torture","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-04-20T09:29:00.000Z","id":"PT0557B2","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"     ","slug":"sam-harris-vs-rev-giles-fraser","subtitle":"","title":"Sam Harris vs Rev. Giles Fraser","type":"debates"},{"date":"2011-04-20T09:00:00.000Z","id":"PT17263B","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/f5b8a13d-93dc-4cfa-a518-b6f5deb11a15/acc0fefb-14d3-43ec-9804-c1fc78871596_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Many people have noticed that there seem to be no new arguments for the truth of any of the world’s religions. I recently stumbled upon one, however, and it has given me a moment’s pause. The Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom has argued that our entire cosmos could be running as a simulation on a supercomputer...","slug":"is-religion-true-in-the-matrix","subtitle":"","title":"Should We Be Mormons in the Matrix?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-04-14T10:13:00.000Z","id":"PT852D60","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"The official video of my debate with the inimitable William Lane Craig is now online and can be viewed above. While I believe I answered (or preempted) all of Craig’s substantive challenges, I’ve received a fair amount of criticism for not rebutting his remarks point for point. Generally speaking, my critics seem to have been...","slug":"the-god-debate","subtitle":"","title":"The God Debate","type":"debates"},{"date":"2011-04-03T20:37:00.000Z","id":"PT6A1562","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/5cd1d205-0091-48b6-af5b-6fd594bf2f94/e0f94ff4-49d2-4712-ace8-2ef7e34a27c0_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The process of getting a nonfiction book published by a mainstream publisher—as distinct from an academic press, or a smaller, independent publisher—is quite straightforward. This is not to say that most people understand this process, or that success is likely, but there is very little uncertainty about how an aspiring author must engage the machinery...","slug":"how-to-get-your-book-published-in-6-painful-steps","subtitle":"","title":"How to Get Your Book Published in 6 (Painful) Steps","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-04-01T10:32:00.000Z","id":"PT12171C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/af846f8f-cc65-4e15-a92d-1e0544832e85/d270f05d-9c31-4a9a-8aa4-5a9efae18d2e_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The New York Times reported today that at least ten UN aid workers have been murdered by an Afghan mob. This senseless savagery occurred in Mazar-i-Sharif, “one of the most peaceful places in Afghanistan,” in response to news that a Florida pastor, Terry Jones, finally made good on his threat to burn a copy of...","slug":"do-we-have-the-right-to-burn-the-koran","subtitle":"","title":"Do We Have the Right to Burn the Koran?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-03-31T13:07:00.000Z","id":"PTC6EB14","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/9fc4f773-5f2b-4142-b907-f87d85ae4e5f/3e7b5dc3-0422-4185-9470-7e4ad7b66779_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Christopher Hitchens and I recently debated Rabbi David Wolpe and Rabbi Bradley Artson on the question, “Is There an Afterlife.” (Video of the event can be viewed here.) Most modern Jews are rather noncommittal on the afterlife, and this queasiness was in evidence throughout our exchange. Hitch and I were expected to say that (1)...","slug":"the-coming-resurrection-of-the-dead","subtitle":"","title":"Will the Dead Walk Again?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-03-30T20:57:00.000Z","id":"PT2DD13E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/5ecaec8f-5dd5-4eac-ac4c-b1a3ebc821f6/08c87236-6c0b-48f1-a5a4-a9199407c70b_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"To the consternation of many of my fellow atheists, I often argue that the concept of “atheism” is unnecessary and misleading. Nearly everyone rejects Zeus, Thor, Isis, along with the countless other dead gods of antiquity, and yet no one feels the need to name this condition of unbelief. And so it is with every...","slug":"mr-nobody","subtitle":"","title":"Being Mr. Nobody","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-03-27T21:12:00.000Z","id":"PT04D21E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/88b77cd8-4cf4-43ad-aa01-6b8265ab4b6a/8f587598-1733-4600-8595-d7fd8a4ec6ac_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"The prognosis on the war in Afghanistan seems increasingly dismal. In his review of Bing West’s new book, The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan, (which I have not yet read), Dexter Filkins discusses the challenges posed by Afghan culture and religion: Time after time, West shows the theory of counterinsurgency...","slug":"is-afghanistan-a-lost-cause","subtitle":"","title":"Have We Lost the War in Afghanistan?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-03-14T13:18:00.000Z","id":"PT3B278D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"In the aftermath of the House hearing on American Muslims, Representative Keith Ellison appeared on HBO’s Real Time to further testify to the benign nature of Islam. Attempting to bring some glint of reality to the conversation, Bill Maher posed the following question: Have you read Sam Harris’s book, The End of Faith?… [Harris] says,...","slug":"honesty-the-muslim-worlds-scarcest-resource","subtitle":"","title":"Honesty: The Muslim World’s Scarcest Resource?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-03-04T10:12:00.000Z","id":"PT75C621","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"","slug":"is-there-an-afterlife","subtitle":"Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris vs. Rabbi David Wolpe and Rabbi Bradley Artson","title":"Is There an Afterlife?","type":"debates"},{"date":"2011-01-29T13:28:00.000Z","id":"PT7C20D6","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Among the many quandaries a writer must face after publishing a controversial book is the question of how, or whether, to respond to criticism. At a minimum, it would seem wise to correct misunderstandings and distortions of one’s views wherever they appear, but one soon discovers that there is no good way of doing this.","slug":"response-to-critics-of-the-moral-landscape","subtitle":"","title":"Response to Critics of The Moral Landscape","type":"essays"},{"date":"2011-01-19T13:40:00.000Z","id":"PTCE4E50","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY’S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT? I invite you to pay attention to anything — the sight of this text, the sensation of breathing, the feeling of your body resting against your chair — for a mere sixty seconds without getting distracted by discursive thought. It sounds simple enough: Just pay attention. The...","slug":"we-are-lost-in-thought","subtitle":"A Response to the 2011 Edge Question","title":"We are Lost in Thought","type":"essays"},{"date":"2010-12-29T13:44:00.000Z","id":"PT25B9FC","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"While the United States has suffered the worst recession in living memory, I find that I have very few financial concerns. Many of my friends are in the same position: Most of us attended private schools and good universities, and we will be able to provide these same opportunities to our own children. No one...","slug":"a-new-years-resolution-for-the-rich","subtitle":"","title":"A New Year’s Resolution for the Rich","type":"essays"},{"date":"2010-11-06T10:30:00.000Z","id":"PT34521F","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"On November 6th, 2010 a panel of scientists, philosophers, and public intellectuals gathered to discuss what impact evolutionary theory and advances in neuroscience might have on traditional concepts of morality. The panelists were Steven Pinker, Sam Harris, Patricia Churchland, Lawrence Krauss, Simon Blackburn, Peter Singer and The Science Network’s Roger Bingham. Recorded live at the...","slug":"the-great-debate","subtitle":"","title":"The Great Debate","type":"debates"},{"date":"2010-10-13T10:34:00.000Z","id":"PT0B071E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Voltaire once wrote, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” Leaving aside whether we actually did, can the same be said of religion? Economist Debate  ","slug":"sam-harris-vs-mark-oppenheimer-is-religion-a-force-for-good","subtitle":"","title":"Sam Harris vs. Mark Oppenheimer: Is Religion a Force for Good?","type":"debates"},{"date":"2010-10-04T13:52:00.000Z","id":"PT519057","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Since the publication of my first book, The End of Faith, I have had a privileged view of the “culture wars”—both in the United States, between secular liberals and Christian conservatives, and in Europe, between largely irreligious societies and their growing Muslim populations. Having received tens of thousands of letters and emails from people at...","slug":"can-there-be-a-science-of-good-and-evil","subtitle":"","title":"Can there be a science of good and evil?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2010-10-03T13:54:00.000Z","id":"PT4934DB","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"The people of Albania have a venerable tradition of vendetta called “Kanun”: If a man commits a murder, his victim’s family can kill any one of his male relatives in reprisal. If a boy has the misfortune of being the son or brother of a murderer, he must spend his days and nights in hiding,...","slug":"the-science-of-good-and-evil","subtitle":"","title":"The Science of Good and Evil","type":"essays"},{"date":"2010-08-25T14:00:00.000Z","id":"PTE580E7","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"Editor: In a recent Wall Street Journal article, terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann said that anti-Muslim rhetoric in America is bad news for anti-terrorism efforts: “We are handing al Qaeda a propaganda coup, an absolute propaganda coup.” By many accounts, the man who could blunt the power of that coup is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the...","slug":"silence-is-not-moderation","subtitle":"","title":"Silence Is Not Moderation","type":"essays"},{"date":"2010-08-25T13:57:00.000Z","id":"PTD2D649","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/d05e85d2-3f37-478d-bd19-f7eb93c86d99/eaa447aa-1cd1-4cae-b345-df57c28c7e37_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"1. Are there right and wrong answers to moral questions? Morality must relate, at some level, to the well-being of conscious creatures. If there are more and less effective ways for us to seek happiness and to avoid misery in this world—and there clearly are—then there are right and wrong answers to questions of morality.","slug":"the-moral-landscape-q-a-with-sam-harris","subtitle":"","title":"The Moral Landscape: Q\u0026A with Sam Harris","type":"interviews"},{"date":"2010-08-18T10:38:00.000Z","id":"PTBF721D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Sam Harris speaks with Patt Morrison and Reza Aslan about the Ground Zero Mosque and the problem of Islam. The Ground Zero Mosque","slug":"the-ground-zero-mosque-sam-harris-vs-reza-aslan","subtitle":"","title":"The Ground Zero Mosque: Sam Harris vs. Reza Aslan","type":"debates"},{"date":"2010-08-14T14:04:00.000Z","id":"PT3BE428","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Should a 15-story mosque and Islamic cultural center be built two blocks from the site of the worst jihadist atrocity in living memory? Put this way, the question nearly answers itself. This is not to say, however, that I think we should prevent our fellow citizens from building “the ground zero mosque.” There is probably...","slug":"the-mosque","subtitle":"","title":"The Mosque","type":"debates"},{"date":"2010-05-10T14:09:00.000Z","id":"PT210690","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"I confess that, as a critic of religion, I have paid too little attention to the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Frankly, it always felt unsportsmanlike to shoot so large and languorous a fish in so tiny a barrel. This scandal was one of the most spectacular “own goals” in the history of...","slug":"bringing-the-vatican-to-justice","subtitle":"","title":"Bringing the Vatican to Justice","type":"essays"},{"date":"2010-05-06T14:14:00.000Z","id":"PT94D9C0","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Over the past couple of months, I seem to have conducted a public experiment in the manufacture of philosophical and scientific ideas. In February, I spoke at the 2010 TED conference, where I briefly argued that morality should be considered an undeveloped branch of science. Normally, when one speaks at a conference the resulting feedback...","slug":"toward-a-science-of-morality","subtitle":"","title":"Toward a Science of Morality","type":"essays"},{"date":"2010-03-29T14:17:00.000Z","id":"PT746B6C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Last month, I had the privilege of speaking at the 2010 TED conference for exactly 18 minutes. The short format of these talks is a brilliant innovation and surely the reason for their potent half-life on the Internet. However, 18 minutes is not a lot of time in which to present a detailed argument. My...","slug":"moral-confusion-in-the-name-of-science","subtitle":"","title":"Moral confusion in the name of “science”","type":"lectures"},{"date":"2010-03-23T10:41:00.000Z","id":"PTD8B69B","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":" ","slug":"sam-harris-and-michael-shermer-vs-deepak-chopra-and-jean-houston","subtitle":"Sam Harris and Michael Shermer vs Deepak Chopra and Jean Houston","title":"Does God Have a Future?","type":"debates"},{"date":"2010-01-19T14:21:00.000Z","id":"PT97B979","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"HOW IS THE INTERNET CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK? It is now a staple of scientific fantasy, or nightmare, to envision that human minds will one day be uploaded onto a vast computer network like the Internet. While I am agnostic about whether we will ever break the neural code, allowing our inner lives to...","slug":"the-upload-has-begun","subtitle":"A Response to the 2010 Edge Question","title":"The Upload Has Begun","type":"essays"},{"date":"2010-01-05T14:26:00.000Z","id":"PT620AB1","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 In her article (“Think Again: God,” November 2009), Karen Armstrong discovers that Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and I have mistaken “fundamentalism” for the totality of religion. (Sorry about that.) But do Richard and Christopher really hold religion responsible for “all human cruelty”? That is a surprise. I hadn’t realized that they were idiots.","slug":"the-god-fraud","subtitle":"A Response to Karen Armstrong","title":"The God Fraud","type":"essays"},{"date":"2009-11-22T14:31:00.000Z","id":"PTD81040","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"This is a response to Stanislas Dehaene’s “Signatures of Consciousness.” This was a very interesting talk, and Dehaene and colleagues are doing fascinating neuroscience. But as is often the case with neuroscientists engaged in fascinating research, Dehaene seems impatient with related problems in philosophy. Finding such problems boring is not the same as solving them,...","slug":"reply-to-stanislas-dehaene","subtitle":"","title":"Reply to Stanislas Dehaene","type":"essays"},{"date":"2009-11-16T14:47:00.000Z","id":"PT5A96FC","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"To the Editor: In his recent article about the evolutionary origins of religion, Nicholas Wade claimed that atheists would be reluctant to accept that religion might have conferred some adaptive advantages upon our ancestors. As one of the atheists whom Mr. Wade may have had in mind, I disagree. If religious belief helped our ancestors...","slug":"reply-to-nicholas-wade","subtitle":"","title":"Reply to Nicholas Wade","type":"essays"},{"date":"2009-11-08T10:44:00.000Z","id":"PTDCB6C4","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":" ","slug":"harris-hitchens-dennett-vs-boteach-dsouza-wright-taleb","subtitle":"","title":"Harris, Hitchens, \u0026 Dennett vs. Boteach, D’Souza, Wright, \u0026 Taleb","type":"debates"},{"date":"2009-09-30T15:03:00.000Z","id":"PT2CA91C","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Abstract: Background While religious faith remains one of the most significant features of human life, little is known about its relationship to ordinary belief at the level of the brain. Nor is it known whether religious believers and nonbelievers differ in how they evaluate statements of fact. Our lab previously has used functional neuroimaging to...","slug":"the-neural-correlates-of-religious-and-nonreligious-belief","subtitle":"","title":"The Neural Correlates of Religious and Nonreligious Belief","type":"essays"},{"date":"2009-08-06T15:19:00.000Z","id":"PTCB17EF","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"[Note: My recent op-ed in the New York Times, in which I questioned the appointment of Francis Collins as head of the NIH, inspired a fair amount of discussion in the media and on the Internet. As many of Collins’ defenders do not seem to be fully acquainted with his beliefs, or take it for...","slug":"the-strange-case-of-francis-collins","subtitle":"","title":"The Strange Case of Francis Collins","type":"essays"},{"date":"2009-07-26T16:43:00.000Z","id":"PTE0C591","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"PRESIDENT OBAMA has nominated Francis Collins to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health. It would seem a brilliant choice. Dr. Collins’s credentials are impeccable: he is a physical chemist, a medical geneticist and the former head of the Human Genome Project. He is also, by his own account, living proof that...","slug":"science-is-in-the-details","subtitle":"","title":"Science Is in the Details","type":"essays"},{"date":"2009-06-24T10:47:00.000Z","id":"PTB9AA28","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"Sam Harris and Philip Ball discuss the conflict between religion and science. They do not agree… Philip Ball is a freelance science writer. He worked at Nature for over 20 years, first as an editor for physical sciences (for which his brief extended from biochemistry to quantum physics and materials science) and then as a...","slug":"sam-harris-vs-philip-ball","subtitle":"","title":"Sam Harris vs Philip Ball","type":"debates"},{"date":"2009-02-05T16:48:00.000Z","id":"PT534579","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Jerry Coyne has published wonderful demolition of religious faith in The New Republic: “Seeing and Believing” Sam Harris has contributed a satirical response to the discussion about it on Edge.org. It is a pity that people like Jerry Coyne and Daniel Dennett can’t see how easily religion and science can be reconciled. Having once viewed...","slug":"its-all-true","subtitle":"","title":"It’s All True","type":"essays"},{"date":"2009-01-03T16:51:00.000Z","id":"PT8CA5D1","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"WHAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING? “What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?” When evaluating the social cost of deception, one must consider all of the misdeeds—marital infidelities, Ponzi schemes, premeditated murders, terrorist atrocities, genocides, etc.—that are nurtured and shored-up, at every turn, by lies. Viewed in this wider context, deception...","slug":"true-lie-detection","subtitle":"A Response to the 2009 Edge Question","title":"True Lie Detection","type":"essays"},{"date":"2008-09-21T16:54:00.000Z","id":"PTC1D31D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Let me confess that I was genuinely unnerved by Sarah Palin’s performance at the Republican convention. Given her audience and the needs of the moment, I believe Governor Palin’s speech was the most effective political communication I have ever witnessed. Here, finally, was a performer who—being maternal, wounded, righteous and sexy—could stride past the frontal...","slug":"in-defense-of-elitism","subtitle":"","title":"In Defense of Elitism","type":"essays"},{"date":"2008-09-09T16:58:00.000Z","id":"PTF25784","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"[Note: This is a response to Jonathan Haidt’s target article, What Makes People Vote Republican?] The human brain is an engine of belief. Our minds continually consume, produce, and attempt to reconcile propositions about ourselves and the world that purport to be true: Iran is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons; human beings are contributing to...","slug":"brain-science-and-human-values","subtitle":"","title":"Brain Science and Human Values","type":"essays"},{"date":"2008-09-03T19:20:00.000Z","id":"PT22448D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"I’ve received more than the usual amount of criticism for my recent opinion piece on Sarah Palin, most of it alleging sexism and/or an unseemly infatuation with Barack Obama.  For those who care, I’d like to briefly respond: My alleged sexism: It is true that I used some hackneyed, gender-slanted language in the piece (“get...","slug":"sam-harris-sexist-pig-and-liberal-shill","subtitle":"","title":"Sam Harris: Sexist Pig and Liberal Shill","type":"essays"},{"date":"2008-09-03T15:24:00.000Z","id":"PT64EF47","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"So let us ask the question that should be on the mind of every thinking person in the world at this moment: If John McCain becomes the 44th president of the United States, what are the odds that a blood clot or falling object will make Sarah Palin the 45th? The actuarial tables on the...","slug":"palin-average-isnt-good-enough","subtitle":"","title":"Palin: Average Isn’t Good Enough","type":"essays"},{"date":"2008-07-06T18:29:00.000Z","id":"PT17E1CC","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"On May 5, 2008, we posted links to four online surveys on this website, seeking the opinions of atheists and committed Christians on a wide variety of topics.  Over the next few weeks, we received 36,781 finished surveys (some respondents completed all four, some fewer). Below, we have provided links to the (as yet unanalyzed)...","slug":"survey-what-do-atheists-and-christians-believe-and-how-strongly-do-they-bel","subtitle":"","title":"Survey: What Do Atheists and Christians Believe (and How Strongly Do They Believe It)?","type":"announcements"},{"date":"2008-07-05T19:32:00.000Z","id":"PTA9FDDC","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"According to a recent Pew survey, 21 percent of atheists in the United States believe in “God or a universal spirit,” and 8 percent are “absolutely certain” that such a Being exists. One wonders if they were also “absolutely certain” they understood the meaning of the term “atheist.” Claiming to be an atheist who believes...","slug":"the-boundaries-of-belief","subtitle":"","title":"The Boundaries of Belief","type":"essays"},{"date":"2008-05-08T17:39:00.000Z","id":"PTBB9FF7","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Geert Wilders, conservative Dutch politician and provocateur, has become the latest projectile in the world’s most important culture war: the zero-sum conflict between civil society and traditional Islam. Wilders, who lives under perpetual armed guard due to death threats, recently released a 15 minute film entitled Fitna (“strife” in Arabic) over the internet. The film...","slug":"losing-our-spines-to-save-our-necks","subtitle":"","title":"Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks","type":"essays"},{"date":"2008-03-21T19:42:00.000Z","id":"PTB97362","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Barack Obama delivered a truly brilliant and inspiring speech this week. There were a few things, however, that he did not and could not (and, indeed, should not) say: He did not say that the mess he is in has as much to do with religion as with racism—and, indeed, religion is the reason why...","slug":"what-barack-obama-could-not-and-should-not-say","subtitle":"","title":"What Barack Obama Could Not (and Should Not) Say","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-12-31T19:45:00.000Z","id":"PT2FE18A","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY? Like many people, I once trusted in the wisdom of Nature. I imagined that there were real boundaries between the natural and the artificial, between one species and another, and thought that, with the advent of genetic engineering, we would be tinkering with life at our peril.","slug":"mother-nature-is-not-our-friend","subtitle":"","title":"Mother Nature is Not Our Friend","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-12-08T22:10:00.000Z","id":"PT7B13BE","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Sam Harris, Sameer A. Sheth, MD, PhD, Mark S. Cohen, PhD Objective: The difference between believing and disbelieving a proposition is one of the most potent regulators of human behavior and emotion. When we accept a statement as true, it becomes the basis for further thought and action; rejected as false, it remains a string...","slug":"functional-neuroimaging-of-belief-disbelief-and-uncertainty","subtitle":"","title":"Functional Neuroimaging of Belief, Disbelief, and Uncertainty","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-12-05T11:07:00.000Z","id":"PTD6F98E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"","slug":"does-god-exist","subtitle":"","title":"Does God Exist?","type":"debates"},{"date":"2007-11-28T20:15:00.000Z","id":"PT07619E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"I have long thought that someone should perpetrate a Sokal-style hoax on the New York Times opinion page—a page which has become, under the careful stewardship of David Shipley, a stronghold of pseudoscience, preening relativism, and religious apology. Paul C. Davies’ recent op-ed, “Taking Science on Faith,” would have been a magnificent hoax text, and...","slug":"response-to-paul-c-davies","subtitle":"","title":"Response to Paul C. Davies","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-11-05T17:19:00.000Z","id":"PT4C1961","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"First, let me confess that I have long enjoyed Theodore Dalrymple’s writing. This only became an inconvenience yesterday, in fact, when I learned that Dalrymple had subjected my first book, The End of Faith, to especially malicious treatment in the pages of this magazine. I hope readers of City Journal will believe me when I...","slug":"response-to-theodore-dalrymple","subtitle":"","title":"Response to Theodore Dalrymple","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-10-17T11:12:00.000Z","id":"PTF62C54","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"What is the role of secularism in contemporary politics, and what does it mean to be tolerant towards others’ religious or non-religious views? Micromega is presenting a two-week long round-table to discuss these issues, with Roberta De Monticelli, Daniel Dennett, Paolo Flores d’Arcais, Marcel Gauchet, Sam Harris, Avishai Margalit, Thomas Nagel, Fernando Savater, Dan Sperber...","slug":"on-secularism-a-round-table","subtitle":"","title":"On Secularism: A Round Table","type":"debates"},{"date":"2007-10-09T21:27:00.000Z","id":"PT026DEF","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"As The Atlantic celebrates its 150th anniversary, scholars, novelists, politicians, artists, and others look ahead to the future of the American idea God-Drunk Society America is now a nation of 300 million souls, wielding more influence than any people in human history—and yet 240 million of these souls apparently believe that Jesus will return someday...","slug":"the-future-of-the-american-idea","subtitle":"","title":"The Future of the American Idea","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-10-09T20:31:00.000Z","id":"PTA6F9B9","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"As you read this, Ayaan Hirsi Ali sits in a safe house with armed men guarding her door. She is one of the most poised, intelligent and compassionate advocates of freedom of speech and conscience alive today, and for this she is despised in Muslim communities throughout the world. The details of her story bear...","slug":"ayaan-hirsi-ali-abandoned-to-fanatics","subtitle":"","title":"Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Abandoned to Fanatics","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-10-08T22:47:00.000Z","id":"PTE5F38D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"As several prominent atheists have now criticized the speech I gave at the Atheist Alliance conference in DC—without, apparently, understanding it—I thought I would take a moment to clarify the point I was making about the use of the term “atheist.” Is it really possible that PZ Myers and Ellen Johnson think I was recommending...","slug":"response-to-my-fellow-atheists","subtitle":"","title":"Response to My Fellow Atheists","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-10-02T22:43:00.000Z","id":"PTC934CA","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"(This is an edited transcript of a talk given at the Atheist Alliance conference in Washington D.C. on September 28th, 2007) To begin, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge just how strange it is that a meeting like this is even necessary. The year is 2007, and we have all taken time out...","slug":"the-problem-with-atheism","subtitle":"","title":"The Problem with Atheism","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-09-27T22:39:00.000Z","id":"PT3441C2","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Christopher Hitchens has written, with characteristic candor and eloquence, that “[r]eligion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.” This ten-fold indictment needs little support from me, as evidence of its truth has been crashing down upon...","slug":"religion-as-a-black-market-for-irrationality","subtitle":"","title":"Religion as a Black Market for Irrationality","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-09-22T15:54:28.000Z","id":"PTDD6573","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Humanity has had a long fascination with blood sacrifice. In fact, it has been by no means uncommon for a child to be born into this world only to be patiently and lovingly reared by religious maniacs, who believe that the best way to keep the sun on its course or to ensure a rich harvest is to lead him by tender hand into a field or to a mountaintop and bury, butcher, or burn him alive as offering to an invisible God. Countless children have been unlucky enough to be born in so dark an age, when ignorance and fantasy were indistinguishable from knowledge and where the drumbeat of religious fanaticism kept perfect time with every human heart.","slug":"letter-to-a-christian-nation-afterword","subtitle":"","title":"Letter To A Christian Nation: Afterword","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-09-12T22:36:00.000Z","id":"PT65B9B6","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"In his essay, “Moral Psychology and the Misunderstanding of Religion,”Jonathan Haidt worries that the “new atheists”—Dawkins, Dennett, and I—may be “polluting the scientific study of religion with moralistic dogma and damaging the prestige of science in the process.” According to Haidt, Dawkins becomes the Grand Inquisitor whenever the topic of group selection is politely raised;...","slug":"response-to-jonathan-haidt","subtitle":"","title":"Response to Jonathan Haidt","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-08-29T22:33:00.000Z","id":"PT2E668B","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Humanity has had a long fascination with blood sacrifice. In fact, it has been by no means uncommon for a child to be born into this world only to be patiently and lovingly reared by religious maniacs who believe that the best way to keep the sun on its course or to ensure a rich","slug":"the-sacrifice-of-reason","subtitle":"","title":"The Sacrifice of Reason","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-08-22T22:30:00.000Z","id":"PT63C0A8","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"It was genuinely alarming to encounter Ziauddin Sardar’s whitewash of Islam in the pages of your journal (‘Beyond the troubled relationship’ Nature 448, 131-133; 2007). Here, as elsewhere, Nature’s coverage of religion has been unfailingly tactful—to the point of obscurantism… Nature 448, 864 (23 August 2007) PDF...","slug":"scientists-should-unite-against-threat-from-religion","subtitle":"","title":"Scientists should unite against threat from religion","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-06-26T22:27:00.000Z","id":"PT3497C1","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Imagine that the year is 1507, and life is difficult. Crops fail, good people suffer instantaneous and horrifying turns of bad luck, and even the children of royalty regularly die before they have taken their first steps. As it turns out, everyone understands the cause of these calamities: it is witchcraft. Not all witchcraft is...","slug":"in-defense-of-witchcraft","subtitle":"","title":"In Defense of Witchcraft","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-06-18T11:15:00.000Z","id":"PT831F7E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"","slug":"sam-harris-vs-chris-hedges","subtitle":"","title":"Sam Harris vs. Chris Hedges","type":"debates"},{"date":"2007-04-28T11:18:00.000Z","id":"PT52AE81","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"From: Sam Harris To: Andrew Sullivan   01/16/07, 5:20 PM Hi Andrew— First, I’d like to say that it is a pleasure to communicate with you in this forum. We’ve engaged one another indirectly on the internet, and on the radio, but I think this email exchange will give us our first opportunity for a...","slug":"sam-harris-vs-andrew-sullivan","subtitle":"","title":"Is Religion Built Upon Lies?","type":"debates"},{"date":"2007-04-18T22:25:00.000Z","id":"PT16808E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"The coverage of my recent debate in the pages of Newsweek began and ended with Jon Meacham and Rick Warren each making respectful reference to Pascal’s wager. As many readers will remember, Pascal suggested that religious believers are simply taking the wiser of two bets: if a believer is wrong about God, there is not...","slug":"the-empty-wager","subtitle":"","title":"The Empty Wager","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-04-01T11:47:00.000Z","id":"PT2D23CF","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/85f58681-ade7-416a-8d53-d375b5e251f7/aab09b5f-3bd0-403c-9723-7cb7ac75012f_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"From the Introductory Essay: “Is God Real?”, by Jon Meacham If you know anything about the two men, you will not find their answers surprising. The details of their arguments and the play of their minds, however, shed light on the nature of the clash about religion at this moment in America. Warren believes in...","slug":"sam-harris-vs-rick-warren","subtitle":"","title":"Sam Harris vs. Rick Warren","type":"debates"},{"date":"2007-03-15T22:21:00.000Z","id":"PT3C30FD","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"PETE STARK, a California Democrat, appears to be the first congressman in U.S. history to acknowledge that he doesn’t believe in God. In a country in which 83% of the population thinks that the Bible is the literal or “inspired” word of the creator of the universe, this took political courage. Of course, one can...","slug":"gods-dupes","subtitle":"","title":"God’s Dupes","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-01-19T22:17:00.000Z","id":"PT61F18B","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Kajal Khidr was accused of adultery by her husband’s family and held hostage by six family members in Iraqi Kurdistan. Kajal Khidr was tortured and mutilated; family members cut off part of her nose and told her she would be killed after the birth of her child. After fleeing to Syria, two of her abusers...","slug":"gods-hostages","subtitle":"","title":"God’s Hostages","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-01-16T22:13:00.000Z","id":"PT6FD810","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"…While at Salk, I witnessed scientists giving voice to some of the most unctuous religious apologies I have ever heard. It is one thing to be told that the pope is a great champion of reason and that his opposition to embryonic stem cell research has nothing to do with religious dogmatism; it is quite...","slug":"beyond-the-believers","subtitle":"","title":"Beyond the Believers","type":"essays"},{"date":"2007-01-06T22:10:00.000Z","id":"PTDD73A2","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"I recently spent an afternoon on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, atop the mount where Jesus is believed to have preached his most famous sermon. It was an infernally hot day, and the sanctuary was crowded with Christian pilgrims from many continents. Some gathered silently in the shade, while others staggered in...","slug":"selfless-consciousness-without-faith","subtitle":"","title":"Selfless Consciousness Without Faith","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-12-31T20:53:00.000Z","id":"PT1780CF","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? No one has ever mistaken me for an optimist. And yet, when I consider what is perhaps the most pristine source of pessimism—the moral development of our species—I find reasons for hope. Despite our perennial mischief, I believe that we have made unmistakable progress in our morality. Our powers of...","slug":"we-are-making-moral-progress","subtitle":"","title":"We Are Making Moral Progress","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-12-29T20:50:00.000Z","id":"PT7E8063","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"For better or worse, I am partly responsible for the recent emergence of “atheism” as a topic of conversation. This is somewhat ironic, as I do not like the term and rarely use it. I did not, for instance, refer to myself as an “atheist” when I wrote The End of Faith—and yet this book...","slug":"gods-enemies-are-more-honest-than-his-friends","subtitle":"","title":"God’s Enemies Are More Honest Than His Friends","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-12-24T20:47:00.000Z","id":"PTE64CFF","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"SEVERAL POLLS indicate that the term “atheism” has acquired such an extraordinary stigma in the United States that being an atheist is now a perfect impediment to a career in politics (in a way that being black, Muslim or gay is not). According to a recent Newsweek poll, only 37% of Americans would vote for...","slug":"10-myths-and-10-truths-about-atheism","subtitle":"","title":"10 myths — and 10 Truths — About Atheism","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-12-11T11:50:00.000Z","id":"PT3BB984","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"","slug":"sam-harris-vs-reza-aslan","subtitle":"","title":"Sam Harris vs. Reza Aslan","type":"debates"},{"date":"2006-12-06T18:41:00.000Z","id":"PT7C089D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/87e279a4-e50f-4cca-96e1-3994ec9ba0fe/82166949-c3a8-4899-ad6b-6a5f69b8a659_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"  Having now published two books critical of religious dogmatism, I have had many opportunities to marvel at the extent to which intelligent people still rise to the defense of all the divisive lunacy in our world that goes by the name of “religion.” While I have encountered many silly, vacuous, and even infuriating responses...","slug":"reply-to-b-alan-wallace","subtitle":"","title":"Reply to B. Alan Wallace","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-12-05T17:37:00.000Z","id":"PTC6A59F","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"December 5, 2006 When Atheists Have Their Say To the Editor: Re “A Modest Proposal for a Truce on Religion,” by Nicholas D. Kristof (column, Dec. 3): Contrary to Mr. Kristof’s opinion, it isn’t “intolerant” or “fundamentalist” to point out that there is no good reason to believe that one of our books was dictated...","slug":"reply-to-nicholas-d-kristof","subtitle":"","title":"Reply to Nicholas D. Kristof","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-12-01T20:34:00.000Z","id":"PT39DE6A","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Scott Atran rebukes Richard Dawkins, Steven Weinberg and me for the various ways we each criticized religion at a recent conference at the Salk Institute. While Atran responded to us in person at this meeting, and has elaborated his views at considerable length here, he has yet to say anything of relevance to the case...","slug":"beyond-belief-the-debate-continues","subtitle":"","title":"Beyond Belief: The Debate Continues","type":"debates"},{"date":"2006-11-25T12:13:00.000Z","id":"PT80BB35","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/ae49116f-c8cd-4b35-99b1-baa9c7c1bc1c/ae806eac-cd6a-43de-9a30-fd4351e0a0d0_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Author of the thundering anti-theist polemics The End of Faith and  Letter to a Christian Nation, Harris may just be the Thomas Paine of an emerging movement to wrench religion out of American life. Prager is a nationally syndicated talk radio host who trumpets the virtues of the Judeo-Christian tradition… (www.jewcy.com) legacy-site/jewcy_logo.gif...","slug":"sam-harris-vs-dennis-prager","subtitle":"","title":"Sam Harris vs. Dennis Prager","type":"debates"},{"date":"2006-11-19T12:09:00.000Z","id":"PTFB286D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Most Christians believe that Jesus was the Son of God and, therefore, divine; Muslims, however, believe that Jesus was not divine and that anyone who thinks otherwise will suffer the torments of hell (Koran 5:71-75; 19:30-38). This difference of opinion offers about as much room for compromise as a coin toss. If there is common...","slug":"faith-wont-heal-a-divided-world","subtitle":"","title":"Faith Won’t Heal a Divided World","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-11-05T12:06:00.000Z","id":"PT80F2AD","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/6cf996bc-7659-430d-80c7-c23959947332/4dad3ac9-bda1-4540-b9a0-98e180baaec1_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Faith and doubt inform two important pieces in the Special Report. One, by former Bush speechwriter and adviser Michael Gerson, lays out a new, broader vision for conservative Christians. To offer a radically different view, we invited Sam Harris, an atheist who is the author of “Letter to a Christian Nation” and “The End of...","slug":"the-case-against-faith","subtitle":"","title":"The Case Against Faith","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-10-21T12:03:00.000Z","id":"PTCD2AB3","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"The midterm elections are fast approaching, and their outcome could well be determined by the “moral values” of conservative Christians. While this possibility is regularly bemoaned by liberals, the link between religion and morality in our public life is almost never questioned. One of the most common justifications one hears for religious faith, from all...","slug":"do-we-really-need-bad-reasons-to-be-good","subtitle":"","title":"Do We Really Need Bad Reasons To Be Good?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-09-19T11:49:00.000Z","id":"PT4A0367","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"TWO YEARS AGO I published a book highly critical of religion, “The End of Faith.” In it, I argued that the world’s major religions are genuinely incompatible, inevitably cause conflict and now prevent the emergence of a viable, global civilization. In response, I have received many thousands of letters and e-mails from priests, journalists, scientists,...","slug":"the-end-of-liberalism","subtitle":"","title":"The End of Liberalism?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-09-17T11:44:00.000Z","id":"PTF251FB","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/db9b931c-e098-4517-bcd8-311b4d50dec7/27aa3d19-9dfa-46b0-9ee9-72453a40c614_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Pope Benedict XVI waves to pilgrims as he climbs the stairs of a stage before celebrating Mass at a Munich fairground Sept. 10. The German-born pontiff visited his homeland Sept. 9-14. The world is still talking about the pope’s recent speech—a speech so boring, convoluted and oblique to the real concerns of humanity that it...","slug":"gods-rottweiler-barks","subtitle":"","title":"‘God’s Rottweiler’ Barks","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-08-21T11:31:00.000Z","id":"PT8FFCB3","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Francis Collins—physical chemist, medical geneticist and head of the Human Genome Project—has written a book entitled The Language of God. In it, he attempts to demonstrate that there is a consistent and profoundly satisfying harmony between 21st-century science and evangelical Christianity. To say that he fails at his task does not quite get at the...","slug":"the-language-of-ignorance","subtitle":"","title":"The Language of Ignorance","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-07-01T11:28:00.000Z","id":"PT5F1970","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/040ad638-564c-4f0c-9976-d2e3d12ee619/8c25f2be-8647-420d-8d6f-46e90c838333_thumb_x2","shortDescription":"Since the publication of my first book, The End of Faith, I have received thousands of letters and e-mails from religious believers insisting that I am wrong not to believe in God. Invariably, the most unpleasant of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally believe that no faith imparts the...","slug":"reply-to-a-christian","subtitle":"","title":"Reply to a Christian","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-06-01T10:16:00.000Z","id":"PTB26921","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"NOTE: Please see my most recent thoughts on this and other controversial subjects here: Response to Controversy.—SH Imagine that a known terrorist has planted a bomb in the heart of a nearby city. He now sits in your custody. Rather than conceal his guilt, he gloats about the forthcoming explosion and the magnitude of human...","slug":"in-defense-of-torture","subtitle":"","title":"In Defense of Torture","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-05-01T11:25:00.000Z","id":"PTDC35FE","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"One cannot criticize religious dogmatism for long without encountering the following claim, advanced as though it were a self-evident fact of nature: there is no secular basis for morality. Raping and killing children can only really be wrong, the thinking goes, if there is a God who says it is. Otherwise, right and wrong would...","slug":"the-myth-of-secular-moral-chaos","subtitle":"","title":"The Myth of Secular Moral Chaos","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-03-22T11:22:00.000Z","id":"PTF915DA","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Robert Hambourger’s unfavorable review of my book, The End of Faith (“Ode to Intolerance,” Winter 2006 alleges that I do not understand religion – at least as it is practiced by most people, most of the time. While he sought to illustrate this contention by stringing together many disconnected quotations from my book, he showed...","slug":"ode-to-reason","subtitle":"","title":"Ode to Reason","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-03-19T11:19:00.000Z","id":"PTD52808","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"https://assets.samharris.org/post/images/032a8141-066f-40db-94d8-17dc481e99f1/80f8fcb9-720a-4657-b21d-65598db1ba93_thumb_x2","shortDe
64scription":"“Kill the Buddha,” says the old koan. “Kill Buddhism,” says Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith, who argues that Buddhism’s philosophy, insight, and practices would benefit more people if they were not presented as a religion. The ninth-century Buddhist master Lin Chi is supposed to have said, “If you meet the Buddha on...","slug":"killing-the-buddha","subtitle":"","title":"Killing The Buddha","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-03-12T11:15:00.000Z","id":"PTBF3466","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"March 12, 2006 Still Breaking the Spell To the Editor: Leon Wieseltier’s review of Daniel Dennett’s ‘‘Breaking the Spell’’ (Feb. 19) was an impressive demonstration of the power of religious faith. In gathering the wood for this auto-da-fé, Wieseltier showed no facility at all for scientific thought, nor even a basic appreciation for the standards...","slug":"reply-to-leon-wieseltier","subtitle":"","title":"Reply to Leon Wieseltier","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-02-16T11:11:00.000Z","id":"PT1DE8EB","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Ever since the atrocities of September 11th, 2001, there has been a lot of hopeful talk in the Western press about the vast majority of Muslims who are religious “moderates.” Being moderates, they necessarily repudiate the theology of Osama bin Laden and disavow terrorism. Nor would they ever dream of killing another human being over...","slug":"who-are-the-moderate-muslims","subtitle":"","title":"Who Are the Moderate Muslims?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-02-08T11:08:00.000Z","id":"PTA42D5D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"In recent days, crowds of thousands have gathered throughout the Muslim world—burning European embassies, issuing threats, and even taking hostages—in protest over 12 cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that were first published in a Danish newspaper last September.  The problem is not merely that the cartoons were mildly derogatory.  The furor primarily erupted over the...","slug":"the-real
64ity-of-islam","subtitle":"","title":"The Reality of Islam","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-02-02T11:05:00.000Z","id":"PT39912F","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"I recently spent a week with one hundred fellow scientists at a retreat center in rural Massachusetts. The meeting attracted a diverse group: physicists, neuroscientists, psychologists, clinicians, and a philosopher or two; all devoted to the study of the human mind.  In many respects it was like any other scientific retreat: we gathered each day...","slug":"a-contemplative-science","subtitle":"","title":"A Contemplative Science","type":"essays"},{"date":"2006-01-02T11:01:00.000Z","id":"PTFDAD23","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA? Most people believe that the Creator of the universe wrote (or dictated) one of their books. Unfortunately, there are many books that pretend to divine authorship, and each makes incompatible claims about how we all must live. Despite the ecumenical efforts of many well-intentioned people, these irreconcilable religious commitments still...","slug":"science-must-destroy-religion","subtitle":"","title":"Science Must Destroy Religion","type":"essays"},{"date":"2005-12-07T10:56:00.000Z","id":"PTE9C11A","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl. Soon he will rape, torture and kill her. If an atrocity of this kind is not occurring at precisely this moment, it will happen in a few hours, or days at most. Such is the confidence we can draw from the statistical laws that...","slug":"an-atheist-manifesto","subtitle":"","title":"An Atheist Manifesto","type":"essays"},{"date":"2005-11-29T10:49:00.000Z","id":"PTCDED7D","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"The following op-ed is from Volume 26, Issue 1 of Free Inquiry With the miasma of “Intelligent Design” slowly poisoning our intellectual discourse, it is amazing to consider that a significant percentage of scientists—40 percent!—still believe that reason and faith are compatible. Science, we are often told, “cannot prove that God does not exist”; religion...","slug":"selling-out-science","subtitle":"","title":"Selling Out Science","type":"essays"},{"date":"2005-10-06T10:36:00.000Z","id":"PT3122C2","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl. Soon he will rape, torture, and kill her. If an atrocity of this kind not occurring at precisely this moment, it will happen in a few hours, or days at most.  Such is the confidence we can draw from the statistical laws that govern...","slug":"there-is-no-god-and-you-know-it","subtitle":"","title":"There is No God (And You Know It)","type":"essays"},{"date":"2005-09-29T10:27:00.000Z","id":"PT45DE8E","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"Tom Flynn, the editor of Free Inquiry, has invited me to contribute four essays to this magazine over the course of the next year. This invitation comes after he wrote a mixed, misleading, and ultimately exasperating review of my book, The End of Faith, in these very pages. Having accepted his invitation, I now feel...","slug":"rational-mysticism","subtitle":"","title":"Rational Mysticism","type":"essays"},{"date":"2005-08-02T10:19:00.000Z","id":"PTA859FF","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"President Bush has now endorsed the pseudo-scientific notion of “intelligent design” (ID) and declared it to be a legitimate alternative to the theory of evolution. This is not surprising, as he has always maintained that “the jury is still out” on the question of evolution. But the jury is not out—indeed it was well in...","slug":"the-politics-of-ignorance","subtitle":"","title":"The Politics of Ignorance","type":"essays"},{"date":"2005-03-19T10:15:00.000Z","id":"PTDCCFD7","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"PERHAPS it should come as no surprise that a mere wall of water, sweeping innocent multitudes from the beaches of 12 countries on Boxing Day, failed to raise global doubts about God’s existence. Still, one wonders just how vast and gratuitous a catastrophe would have to be to shake the world’s faith. The Holocaust did...","slug":"the-virus-of-religious-moderation","subtitle":"","title":"The Virus of Religious Moderation","type":"essays"},{"date":"2004-12-31T10:10:00.000Z","id":"PTA1817F","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDe
64scription":"Twenty-two percent of Americans claim to be certain that Jesus will return to earth to judge the living and the dead sometime in the next fifty years. Another twenty-two percent believe that he is likely to do so. The problem that most interests me at this point, both scientifically and socially, is the problem of...","slug":"what-do-you-believe-but-cannot-prove","subtitle":"","title":"What Do You Believe But Cannot Prove?","type":"essays"},{"date":"2004-08-15T10:05:00.000Z","id":"PTC410CE","imageOrientation":"portrait","imageThumbnailsX2":"","shortDescription":"It appears that President Bush and the Republicans in the Senate have failed (for the moment) to bring the U.S. Constitution into greater conformity with Leviticus and the writings of St. Paul—which are, respectively, the sections of the Old and New Testaments that justify Christian concerns about gay marriage.  Reading these documents, one discovers that...","slug":"holy-terror","subtitle":"","title":"Holy Terror","type":"essays"}]},"__N_SSG":true},"page":"/blog","query":{},"buildId":"build-TfctsWXpff2fKS","isFallback":false,"gsp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}</script>
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