Sam Harris

Sam Harris

Sam Harris is an American author and atheist. Harris is one of the founders of the New Atheism movement which is a type of dogmatic, militant atheism in terms of its rhetoric (see: New Atheism, dogmatism and Jonathon Haidt's study). Dr. Harris received a Ph.D. in neuroscience from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and is also a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University. He wrote two controversial, but New York Times best seller books, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. He has written essays such as "Science must destroy religion".

In 2022, Sam Harris said, "Hunter Biden could have had the corpses of children in his basement - I would not have cared." In response, Theodore Beale wrote: "Atheists have no moral anchor. There’s literally nothing there. Their much-vaunted, self-constructed value systems revolve around nothing more than whatever happens to trigger their emotions at any given moment. They are simple creatures of pure appetite and rhetoric. Remember, Sam Harris is supposed to be among the finest, smartest, most highly-refined philosophers that the atheist community has on offer."

Sam Harris' conflicts with feminists

Richard Dawkins

See also: Atheism and women and Atheism and sexism

Like his fellow new atheist Richard Dawkins, Harris has raised the ire of feminists. See also: Elevatorgate

In 2014, Harris said that atheist activism lacks an “estrogen vibe” and was “to some degree intrinsically male”.

On October 3, 2014, Salon magazine published an online article titled, Atheism’s shocking woman problem: What’s behind the misogyny of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris? On September 20, 2014, the feminist blogger Libby Anne wrote an article entitled Is Sam Harris Sexist? Atheist Sam Fincke wrote a piece entitled On Sam Harris’s Reply to Feminist Critics.

In his defense, Harris published an article on his website titled, “I’m Not the Sexist Pig You’re Looking For”.

Accusations of Islamophobia

See also: Atheism vs. Islam

The new atheists Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens have received multiple accusations of engaging in Islamophobic behavior. On the other hand, defenders of atheist criticisms of Islam/Muslims indicated that New Atheists should be able to criticize Islam without being accused of Islamophobia.

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.

Killing people for thought crimes and Harris' book The End of Faith

In his book The End of Faith, Harris wrote: “Some beliefs are so dangerous that it may be ethical to kill people for believing them”. Harris was criticized by Christian apologist Victor Reppert and others for his promotion of the idea that killing people for thought crimes is morally acceptable.

Theodore Beale wrote in response to Harris defending his statement:

“

whining about the fact that people are still actively holding him accountable for the clear and obvious meaning of his written words, and he is still attempting to shade the truth while doing so. "I know one thing to a moral certainty, however: Both Greenwald and Aslan know that those words do not mean what they appear to mean. Given the amount of correspondence we’ve had on these topics, and given that I have repeatedly bored audiences by clarifying that statement (in response to this kind of treatment), the chance that either writer thinks he is exposing the truth about my views—or that I’m really a “genocidal fascist maniac”—is zero. Aslan and Greenwald—a famous “scholar” and a famous “journalist”—are engaged in a campaign of pure defamation. They are consciously misleading their readers and increasing my security concerns in the process." What a load of utter codswollop. Sam Harris clearly and openly and unmistakably wrote that it MAY be ethical to kill people for believing dangerous beliefs. Not for doing anything, not for harming anyone, but for simply BELIEVING CERTAIN BELIEFS. His repeated "clarifications" and obfuscations don't change that established fact and he has never recanted his statement. Nor, I note, has he ever come right out and declared specifically WHAT beliefs are so dangerous that it is ethical to kill people for nothing more than holding them.

”

Sam Harris on race and IQs

Sam Harris agrees with much of the work of Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray who co-wrote the book The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life.

The Bell Curve explored the relationship between intelligence and success in American life.

Below are Sam Harris interviews relating the topic of race and IQs:

• Race and IQ — Sam Harris and Charles Murray

• Sam Harris & Josh Zepps on Race & IQ

• Sam Harris speaks with Charles Murray about the controversy over his book The Bell Curve

Building a Civilization of Ignorance

The core of science: intellectual honesty
"The core of science is not controlled experiment or mathematical modeling; it is intellectual honesty. It is time we acknowledged a basic feature of human discourse: when considering the truth of a proposition, one is either engaged in an honest appraisal of the evidence and logical arguments, or one isn't." — Sam Harris

In his Letter to a Christian Nation, Harris complains about people who "can obtain a Ph.D. in any branch of science for no other purpose than to make cynical use of scientific language in an effort to rationalize the glaring inadequacies of the Bible" and then he continues: "While such people are technically "scientists," they are not behaving like scientists. They simply are not engaged in an honest inquiry into the nature of the universe." However, while being harshly judgmental of others without care of factual accuracy, he fails to evaluate this criterion of an honest inquiry against his own views. If he would be an "intellectually honest person" as he requires of others, he would had to admit not only that he does not know "why the universe exists," but also that his resistance to patterns of "optimal design" in "the natural world" is, at best, uninformed. Despite his claim: "When we look at the natural world, we see extraordinary complexity, but we do not see optimal design," scientific research brings exactly opposite observations as has been shown by G. Cullmann and J. M. Laboygues already in 1985: "The genetic code is an instantaneous code absolutely optimal" (In French: "Le code génétique, code instantané absolument optimal").

This is a fact that no longer admits of intelligent dispute. Thus, Harris himself is contributing to the very same thing he is afraid of: "These data are unequivocal: we are building a civilization of ignorance," let alone to mention that his behavior exhibits the traits of Selective Inattention, typical for character disturbance advisably subject of treatment by psychologists. If an honest inquiry is the declared thing to be after, then, after finding Harris possibly having attention deficiences, one has to be also inevitably afraid that he may seriously suffer from Evolutionary schizophrenia. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes the proposition "we do not see optimal design when we look at the natural world", purely on the basis of pseudo-religious evolutionary dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.

Social science research on Sam Harris and his fellow new atheists

Sam Harris speaking in 2010.

Using special text analysis software, the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt found that new atheists very often wrote in dogmatic terms in their major works using words such as “always,” “never,” “certainly,” “every,” and “undeniable.” Of the 75,000 words in Sam Harris's The End of Faith, 2.24% of them connote or are associated with certainty.

Despite the frequent expressions of certainty by new atheists, the movement has a reputation for shallow arguments. A frequent occurrence is that the works of new atheists often betray an amateurish knowledge of philosophy/religion. For example, atheist philosopher Dr. Michael Ruse declared concerning new atheist Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion: "The God Delusion makes me embarrassed to be an atheist." Theodore Beale's book The Irrational atheist found multiple errors in reasoning and factual errors when it came to the works of new atheist authors. See also: Atheism and irrationality

Sam Harris vs. William Lane Craig debate

See also: Atheism debates and Atheism and morality and Sam Harris vs. William Lane Craig debate

In 2011, Sam Harris debated the Christian apologist and philosopher William Lane Craig at the University of Notre Dame on the topic of morality and the debate was the proposition "Is Good From God?".

Reviews of the debate

Review by the New Zealand Christian apologetics ministry Thinking Matters

William Lane Craig

The New Zealand Christian apologetics ministry Thinking Matters said of the Sam Harris vs. William Lane Craig debate:

“

Craig brought a great many cogent objections to bear against Harris’s view... Craig started by drawing the audience’s attention to how Harris was confusing moral ontology with moral semantics: confusing the basis or the foundation for moral values with the meaning of moral terms. ...Craig brought down the hammer and completely crushed Harris for the rest of the debate, by not only showing that Harris wasn’t engaging with the topic (he was equivocating between moral epistemology and ontology) but that his entire ethical system was necessarily false, by his own admission... “A less moral framework is atheism,” started Craig with an exasperated laugh, and then went on to point out that Harris had said nothing to defend an atheistic foundation for morality, nor to refute Craig’s own arguments. To demonstrate how poorly Harris understood Christianity, and how irrelevant his “arguments” were, Craig quipped, in regards to Harris’s claim that the goal on theism is to avoid hell, “Belief in God isn’t some kind of fire insurance.” He then went on to list a number of other ways in which the red herrings that Harris had laid across the path were irrelevant—which was fair enough since there wasn’t much else to say.

”

To see the full review of the debate by the Christian ministry Thinking Matters, please see: Review of Sam Harris vs. William Lane Craig debate

Other reviews by Christians:

• Debate Review: William Lane Craig and Sam Harris

• Review of Craig vs. Harris Debate by Randy Ecerest

• Sam Harris vs. William Lane Craig: Thoughts and Links by J.W. Wartick

Review of the debate by the atheist Luke Muehlhauser at Common Sense Atheism

The atheist Luke Muehlhauser reviewed the debate at the atheist blog Common Sense Atheism. Muehlhauser said of the debate, "As usual, Craig’s superior framing, scholarship and debate skills ‘won’ the debate for him."

Harris claims the label atheist is right next to child molester as a designation

see also: Atheism, pederasty and NAMBLA and Views on Atheists

Dr. Sam Harris is a founder of the New Atheism movement. He is quite aware of the stigma surrounding atheism and has even advocated that atheists no longer call themselves atheists. In fact, Harris has said concerning the label of atheist, "It's right next to child molester as a designation."

Sam Harris angrily quits Twitter in a fit of rage after being criticized by many people at Twitter

The comedian and social commentator Jimmy Dore, who indicates that Sam Harris is an immoral, narcissist, says that he helped cause Harris to angrily quit Twitter in a fit of rage. Since Harris' anti free speech comments and his immoral, political tribalism (For example, as noted above, Sam Harris said, "Hunter Biden could have had the corpses of children in his basement - I would not have cared."), a lot of people have lost respect for Harris and called him out on his ill-behavior. Harris blocked them on Twitter before quitting the platform. See also: Atheism and morality and Atheism and narcissism and Atheism and anger and Atheism and social skills

Dore also indicated that Harris recently lost a number of debates and now refuses to debate various people.

New Atheism and vegetarianism

See also: Dietary practices of atheists and New Atheism and veganism and Atheism and veganism and Atheist hypocrisy

In 2015, the new atheist Sam Harris said:

“

“…the fact that I participate in a system that does this knowingly (animal factory farming) more or less condemns me as a hypocrite… We are two people who have admitted to participating in a system that is not only in some sense objectively bad, but perhaps so bad as to be the kind of thing that would be on the short list as to be an embarrassment to our descendants.”

”

At the present time, despite a 2016 Salon article entitled New atheists must become new vegans: Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and the extra burden on moral leaders, the new atheist Sam Harris is the only notable new atheist who has become a vegetarian. Harris said he "aspires" to be a vegan.

Sam Harris' website

See also: Internet atheism and Internet atheism and the coronavirus pandemic

Sam Harris' websites loss of Google referral web traffic

According to the leading web marketing company SEMRush, Sam Harris' website lost a significant amount of its referral traffic from Google as of it peak in January 2022.

Google uses over 200 factors to evaluate the quality and the relevance of a website to various topics.

Sam Harris' website and its drop in global ranking to leading web marketing company SimilarWeb.com

See also: Internet atheism and Internet evangelism: Christians vs. atheists

According to the leading web marketing website SimilarWeb.com, the website SamHarris.org was losing its current SimilarWeb.com ranking. In September of 2022, Similarweb.com indicated that SamHarris.org was the 105,639th most popular website in the world.

On August 19, 2019, according to Alexa, the website of Samharris.org was the 66,776th most popular website in the world and its global market share was dropping.

Demographics of web visitors to the website of Sam Harris

See also: Demographics of web visitors to the website of Sam Harris and Atheist websites appear to receive significantly less traffic from women

According to SimilarWeb.com, the website of Sam Harris receives a majority of its web traffic from men.

See also

• Evangelical atheism
• Richard Dawkins and women

External links

• Letter to a Maladjusted Misotheist
• Sam Harrris by True Free Thinker