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Line 23: − − == Sam Harris' ideas about race and IQ == − − Ethnic groups facing discrimination as immigrants and their IQs temporarily dropping and then later rebounding when the discrimination is over, suggests that IQ is significantly affected by one's environment and not due to any inherent and permanent genetic differences between races.<ref>[http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/05/charles-murray-still-convinced-whites-are-smarter-blacks Charles Murray Still Convinced That Whites Are Smarter Than Blacks] by Kevin Drum, ''Mother Jonees'', 2017</ref> − − The online publications ''Vox'' and ''Paste Magazine'' and the atheist [[PZ Myers]] take strong exception to Sam Harris' views about race and [[IQ]].<ref>[https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/5/18/15655638/charles-murray-race-iq-sam-harris-science-free-speech Charles Murray is once again peddling junk science about race and IQ] by Eric Turkheimer, ''Vox'', May 18, 2017</ref><ref>[https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/05/is-the-bell-curve-scientific-racism.html Is The Bell Curve Scientific Racism?] by Trav Mamone, Paste, 2017</ref><ref>[http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2017/05/02/racists-love-to-cooperate-sam-harris-and-charles-murray/ Racists love to cooperate: Sam Harris and Charles Murray] by PZ Myers, 2017</ref> − − ''Vox'' declares about Harris: − {{Cquote|[[Charles Murray]] ...who co-authored ''[[The Bell Curve]]'' with the late Richard Herrnstein, was recently denied a platform at Middlebury College. − − Harris... presents Murray as a victim of “a [[Political correctness|politically correct]] moral panic” — and goes so far as to say that Murray has no intellectually honest academic critics. Murray’s work on [[The Bell Curve]], Harris insists, merely summarizes the consensus of experts on the subject of intelligence. − − The consensus, he says, is that IQ exists; that it is extraordinarily important to life outcomes of all sorts; that it is largely heritable; and that we don’t know of any interventions that can improve the part that is not heritable. The consensus also includes the observation that the IQs of black Americans are lower, on average, than that of whites, and — most contentiously — that this and other differences among racial groups is based at least in part in genetics. − − Harris is not a neutral presence in the interview. “For better or worse, these are all facts,” he tells his listeners. “In fact, there is almost nothing in psychological science for which there is more evidence than for these claims.” Harris belies his self-presentation as a tough-minded skeptic by failing to ask Murray a single challenging question. Instead, during their lengthy conversation, he passively follows Murray to the dangerous and unwarranted conclusion that black and Hispanic people in the US are almost certainly genetically disposed to have lower IQ scores on average than whites or Asians — and that the IQ difference also explains differences in life outcomes between different ethnic and racial groups. − − In Harris’s view, all of this is simply beyond dispute. Murray’s claims about race and intelligence, however, do not stand up to serious critical or empirical examination. But the main point of this brief piece is not merely to rebut Murray’s conclusions per se — although we will do some of that — but rather to consider the faulty path by which he casually proceeds from a few basic premises to the inflammatory conclusion that IQ differences between groups are likely to be at least partly based on inborn genetic differences. These conclusions, Harris and Murray insist, are disputed only by head-in-the-sand elitists afraid of the policy implications.<ref>[Charles Murray is once again peddling junk science about race and IQ] by Eric Turkheimer, ''Vox'', May 18, 2017</ref>}} − − Kevin Drum at ''Mother Jones'', commenting on Harris' interview of Charles Murray, takes the position that it is most likely one's environment and not inherent racial differences that best explain any experimental variances in IQ.<ref>[http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/05/charles-murray-still-convinced-whites-are-smarter-blacks Charles Murray Still Convinced That Whites Are Smarter Than Blacks] by Kevin Drum, ''Mother Jonees'', 2017</ref>
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On June 21, 2014 Harris published an article on his website entitled ''Response to Critics'' which was a response to his critics who accuse him of Islamophobia.<ref>[http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/response-to-controversy Response to Critics] by Sam Harris, June 21, 2014</ref>
On June 21, 2014 Harris published an article on his website entitled ''Response to Critics'' which was a response to his critics who accuse him of Islamophobia.<ref>[http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/response-to-controversy Response to Critics] by Sam Harris, June 21, 2014</ref>
== Killing people for thought crimes and Harris' book The End of Faith ==
== Killing people for thought crimes and Harris' book The End of Faith ==