Sam Harris

Sam Harris' Opinions

God Do all religions ultimately express the same God? Disagree 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 inspire an appalling amount of human conflict. Edit Pitches 02 Jan 2006    Source Science Are the core truths of science and religion complementary? Disagree The difference between science and religion is the difference between a genuine openness to fruits of human inquiry in the 21st century, and a premature closure to such inquiry as a matter of principle. I believe that the antagonism between reason and faith will only grow more pervasive and intractable in the coming years. Iron Age beliefs — about God, the soul, sin, free will, etc. — continue to impede medical research and distort public policy. Edit Pitches 02 Jan 2006    Source Are spiritual experiences evidence of the supernatural? Disagree There is nothing that prevents an atheist from experiencing love, ecstasy, rapture and awe; atheists can value these [spiritual] experiences and seek them regularly. What atheists don’t tend to do is make unjustified (and unjustifiable) claims about the nature of reality on the basis of such experiences. ... There is [no way to] be certain that Jesus ... was born of a virgin or rose from the dead. These are just not the sort of claims that spiritual experience can authenticate. Edit Pitches 24 Dec 2006    Source Atheism Should atheists directly challenge religious beliefs? Agree ...let me make it clear that I do not consider religious moderates to be "mere enablers of fundamentalist intolerance." They are worse. My biggest criticism of religious moderation-and of your last essay-is that it represents precisely the sort of thinking that will prevent a fully reasonable and nondenominational spirituality from ever emerging in our world. ...imagine a world in which children are taught to investigate reality for themselves... [with] truly honest, fearless inquiry. Edit Pitches 02 Feb 2007    Source Ethics Is morality objective? Agree 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. ... But if there are psychophysical laws that underwrite human well-being—and why wouldn't there be? - ... [then] Knowledge of these laws would provide an enduring basis for an objective morality. Edit Pitches 04 Jun 2007    Source Is "ought" derived from "is"? Mostly Agree So, while it is possible to say that one can't move from "is" to "ought," we should be honest about how we get to "is" in the first place. ... What evidence could prove that we should value evidence? What logic could demonstrate the importance of logic? ... So it is with the linkage between morality and well-being... Edit Pitches 07 May 2010    Source Are America's rich taxed enough? Disagree 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 increasingly terrifying failures of governance. Edit Pitches 17 Aug 2011    Source

Religion Would the world be better off without the Catholic Church? Agree The scandal in the Catholic Church--one might now safely say the scandal that is the Catholic Church--includes the systematic rape and torture of orphaned and disabled children. ... The evidence suggests that the misery of these children was facilitated and concealed by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church at every level, up to and including the prefrontal cortex of the current Pope. Edit Pitches 10 May 2010    Source Terrorism Is Islam fundamentally a peaceful religion? Disagree ...Allah commands his followers to slay infidels wherever they find them... What one doesn’t generally hear from Western Muslims is any frank acknowledgment of these unpleasant truths. In response to serious concerns raised over Islamic doctrines related to jihad, martyrdom, apostasy, and blasphemy—along with their incontrovertible link to terrorism, threats of violence, cartoon “controversies,” and the like—one generally meets with petulance, feigned confusion, half-truths, and non sequiturs. Edit Pitches 13 Aug 2010    Source Islam Do Muslims have the right to build a mosque near ground zero? Agree There is probably no legal basis to do so in any case—nor should there be [against building the mosque. But] the erection of a mosque upon the ashes of this atrocity will also be viewed by many millions of Muslims as a victory—and as a sign that the liberal values of the West are synonymous with decadence and cowardice. Edit Pitches 13 Aug 2010    Source

Comparisons with Other Experts and Influencers

The similarity between Sam Harris and each expert and influencer is calculated by looking at how the same questions were answered. These figures are used to calculate conforming, nonconforming, and projected opinions. The accuracy of the analysis depends on Sam Harris' coverage, which grows with the number of their opinions entered into TakeOnIt.

Conforming Opinions

Sam Harris' conforming opinions are opinions that align with the group of experts and influencers Sam Harris typically agrees with.

Projected Opinions

Sam Harris' projected opinions are opinions Sam Harris is expected to have if their opinions align with the experts and influencers that they typically agree with.