Sam Harris Quotes

There are two objectionable types of believers: those who believe the incredible and those who believe that 'belief' must be discarded and replaced by 'the scientific method.

I don't discount belief. I just discount most of the things that people believe in.

Religion is poison because it asks us to give up our most precious faculty, which is that of reason, and to believe things without evidence. It then asks us to respect this, which it calls faith.

I was now prepared to accept any faith so long as it did not demand a direct denial of reason, which would have been a deceit.

The division between faith and reason is a half-measure, till it is frankly admitted that faith has to do with fiction, and reason with fact.

If you can believe in God, then you can believe in anything. It's a gang mentality.

In science, a healthy skepticism is a professional necessity, whereas in religion, having belief without evidence is regarded as a virtue.

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.

Gods are fragile things, they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.

It was the schoolboy who said, ""Faith is believing what you know ain't so.""

The worship of reason is arrogance and betrays a lack of intelligence. The rejection of reason is cowardice and betrays a lack of faith.

We shouldn't even need the word 'atheism'. If people didn't invent ridiculous imaginary gods, rational people wouldn't have to deny them.

The lack of understanding of something is not evidence for God. It's evidence of a lack of understanding.

Faith is the surrender of the mind; it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It's our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated.

Many people have the reasoning facility, but no one uses it in religious matters.

...Thomas did not believe the resurrection [John 20:25], and, as they say, would not believe without having ocular and manual demonstration himself. So neither will I, and the reason is equally as good for me, and for every other person, as for Thomas.

I would recommend that skeptics devote even more effort than they do now to understanding the reasons why so many people want or need to believe.

Without the voice of reason, every faith is its own curse.

I envy people of faith. I'm incapable of believing in anything supernatural.

Credulity as a character trait is encouraged in every child who grows up with religious training, which invariably insists on the virtue of blind faith and the sinfulness of doubting and questioning.

With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.

Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spiritual things.

Not that the incredulous person doesn't believe in anything. It's just that he doesn't believe in everything.

Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma.

Religion works on some people but not on everyone, because it says, 'Stop thinking and accept what I tell you.' That's not valid for people who want to think and reflect.