Sam Harris

American philosopher and neuroscientist (born 1967)

For other people with the same name, see Sam Harris (disambiguation).

Sam Harris

Harris in 2016

Born| Samuel Benjamin Harris
(1967-04-09) April 9, 1967 (age 58)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation|

* Author
* podcaster

Education|

* Stanford University (BA)
* UCLA (PhD)

Genre| Nonfiction
Subject| Neuroscience, philosophy,[1] religion, spirituality, ethics, politics
Notable awards|

* PEN/Martha Albrand Award
* Webby Award

Spouse|

Annaka Gorton

(m. 2004)​

Children| 2
Parents|

* Berkeley Harris
* Susan Spivak

Signature
Education
Thesis| The moral landscape: How science could determine human values (2009)
Doctoral advisor| Mark Cohen
Philosophical work
Era| Contemporary philosophy
Region|

* Western philosophy

Website
samharris.org

Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, determinism, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. Harris came to prominence for his criticism of religion, and he is known as one of the "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism, along with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett.[2][3][4]

Harris's first book, The End of Faith (2004), won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction and remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 33 weeks. Harris has since written six additional books: Letter to a Christian Nation in 2006, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values in 2010, the long-form essay Lying in 2011, the short book Free Will in 2012, Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion in 2014, and (with British writer Maajid Nawaz) Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue in 2015. Harris's work has been translated into over 20 languages. Some critics have argued that Harris's writings are Islamophobic.[5] Harris and his supporters reject this characterization,[6] saying that such a labeling is an attempt to silence criticism.[7]

Harris has debated with many prominent figures on the topics of God or religion, including William Lane Craig, Jordan Peterson, Rick Warren, Robert Wright, Andrew Sullivan, Cenk Uygur, Reza Aslan, David Wolpe, Deepak Chopra, Ben Shapiro, and Peter Singer. Since September 2013, Harris has hosted the Making Sense podcast (originally titled Waking Up), which has a large listenership. Around 2018, he was described as one of the marginalized "renegade" intellectuals,[8] though Harris disagreed with that characterization.[9][10] In September 2018, Harris released a meditation app, Waking Up with Sam Harris.[a] He is also considered a prominent figure in the Mindfulness movement, promoting meditation practices without the need for any religious beliefs.[11]

## Early life and education

[edit]

Samuel Benjamin Harris was born in Los Angeles, California, on April 9, 1967.[12][13] He is the son of the late actor Berkeley Harris, who appeared mainly in Western films, and television writer and producer Susan Harris (née Spivak), who created Soap and The Golden Girls, among other series.[14][15] His father, born in North Carolina, came from a Quaker background, and his mother is Jewish.[16] He was raised by his mother following his parents' divorce when he was age two.[SH 1] Harris has stated that his upbringing was entirely secular and that his parents rarely discussed religion, though he also stated that he was not raised as an atheist.[17]

While his original major was in English, Harris became interested in philosophical questions while at Stanford University after an experience with MDMA.[18][19][20] The experience interested him in the idea he might be able to achieve spiritual insights without the use of drugs.[21] Leaving Stanford in his second year, a quarter after his psychoactive experience, he visited India and Nepal, where he studied meditation with teachers of Buddhist and Hindu religions,[21][22] including Dilgo Khyentse.[SH 2] For a few weeks in the early 1990s, he was a volunteer guard in the security detail of the Dalai Lama.[23][22]

In 1997, after eleven years overseas, Harris returned to Stanford, completing a B.A. degree in philosophy in 2000.[22][24][25] Harris began writing his first book, The End of Faith, immediately after the September 11 attacks.[22]

He received a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience in 2009 from the University of California, Los Angeles,[22][26][27] using functional magnetic resonance imaging to conduct research into the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty.[22][27] His thesis was titled The Moral Landscape: How Science Could Determine Human Values. His advisor was Mark S. Cohen.[28]

## Career

[edit]

### Writing

[edit]

Harris's writing concerns philosophy, neuroscience, and criticism of religion. He came to prominence for his criticism of religion (Islam in particular) and he is described as one of the Four Horsemen of Atheism, along with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett.[29][2] He has written for publications such as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Economist, The Times (of London), The Boston Globe, and The Atlantic.[30] Five of Harris's books have been New York Times bestsellers, and his writing has been translated into over 20 languages.[30] The End of Faith (2004) remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 33 weeks.[31]

### Podcast

[edit]

In September 2013, Harris began releasing the Waking Up podcast (since re-titled Making Sense). Episodes vary in length but often last over two hours.[32] Releases do not follow a regular schedule.[33]

The podcast focuses on a wide array of topics related to science and spirituality, including philosophy, religion, morality, free will, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics and artificial intelligence. Harris has interviewed a wide range of guests, including scientists, philosophers, spiritual teachers, and authors. Guests have included Jordan Peterson, Dan Dennett, Janna Levin, Peter Singer, and David Chalmers.[33][34][14][35]

### Meditation app

[edit]

In September 2018, Harris released a meditation course app, Waking Up with Sam Harris. The app provides daily meditations; long guided meditations; daily "Moments" (brief meditations and reminders); conversations with thought leaders in psychology, meditation, philosophy, psychedelics, and other disciplines; a selection of lessons on various topics, such as Mind & Emotion, Free Will, and Doing Good; and more. Users of the app are introduced to several types of meditation, such as mindfulness meditation, vipassanā-style meditation, loving-kindness meditation, and Dzogchen.[36]

In September 2020, Harris announced his commitment to donate at least 10% of Waking Up's profits to highly effective charities,[37] thus becoming the first company to sign the Giving What We Can pledge for companies.[38] The pledge was retroactive, taking into account the profits since the day the app launched two years previously.[37]

## Socio-religious views

[edit]

### Religion

[edit]

Part of a series on

Atheism

Concepts

* Implicit and explicit atheism
* Naturalism
* Negative and positive atheism

History

* History of atheism
* Atheism during the Age of Enlightenment
* New Atheism

Society

* Atheist feminism
* Criticism of religion
* Demographics of atheism
* Discrimination against atheists
* Secular ethics
* Secularism
* Separation of church and state
* State atheism
* Atheism and religion

Arguments

Arguments for atheism

* Atheist's wager
* Creator of God
* Evil God challenge
* Fate of the unlearned
* Free will
* God of the gaps
* Hitchens's razor
* Incompatible properties
* Inconsistent revelation
* Nonbelief
* Occam's razor
* Omnipotence paradox
* Parody religion
* Poor design
* Problem of evil
* Problem of Hell
* Russell's teapot
* Theological noncognitivism

People

|  Lists of atheists

* Julian Baggini
* Mikhail Bakunin
* Mario Bunge
* Albert Camus
* Richard Dawkins
* Daniel Dennett
* Denis Diderot
* Ludwig Feuerbach
* A. C. Grayling
* Sam Harris
* Christopher Hitchens
* Baron d'Holbach
* Lawrence Krauss
* Michael Lou Martin
* Karl Marx
* Jean Meslier
* Friedrich Nietzsche
* Michel Onfray
* Bertrand Russell
* Peter Singer
* Victor J. Stenger

Books

* Atheism: The Case Against God
* Breaking the Spell
* De rerum natura
* The End of Faith
* The God Delusion
* God Is Not Great
* The System of Nature

Related stances

|  Irreligion

* Agnosticism
* Freethought
* Secular humanism

Atheism and religion

* Criticism of atheism
* LaVeyan Satanism
* Secular paganism
* Secular Buddhism

* Outline
* Category
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* v
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* e

Harris is generally a critic of religion, and is considered a leading figure in the New Atheist movement. Harris is particularly opposed to what he refers to as dogmatic belief, and says that "Pretending to know things one doesn't know is a betrayal of science – and yet it is the lifeblood of religion."[SH 3] While purportedly opposed to religion in general and their belief systems, Harris believes that all religions are not created equal.[14] Often invoking the non-violent nature of Jainism[39] to contrast with Islam,[40] Harris argues that the differences in religious doctrines and scriptures are the main indicators of a religion's value.[41][42]

In September 2006 Harris debated Robert Wright on the rationality of religious belief.[43] In 2007, he engaged in a lengthy debate with conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan on the Internet forum Beliefnet.[44] In April 2007, Harris debated with evangelical pastor Rick Warren for Newsweek magazine.[45] Harris debated with Rabbi David Wolpe in 2007.[46] In 2010, Harris joined Michael Shermer to debate with Deepak Chopra and Jean Houston on the future of God in a debate hosted by ABC News Nightline.[47] Harris debated with Christian philosopher William Lane Craig in April 2011 on whether there can be an objective morality without God.[48] In June and July 2018, he met with Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson for a series of debates on religion, particularly the relationship between religious values and scientific fact in defining truth.[49][50] Harris has debated with the scholar Reza Aslan.[51]

In 2006, Harris described Islam as "all fringe and no center",[SH 4] and wrote in The End of Faith that "the doctrine of Islam ... represents a unique danger to all of us", arguing that the war on terror is really a war against Islam.[52] In 2007, Harris in the famous "Four Horsemen" debate asked fellow atheists, Hitchens, Dawkins, and Dennett, "Do you feel there's any burden we have, as critics of religion, to be evenhanded in our criticism of religion, or is it fair to notice that there's a spectrum of religious ideas and commitments and Islam is on one end of it and the Amish and the Jains and others are on another end, and there are real differences here that we have to take seriously."[53] In 2014, Harris said he considers Islam to be "especially belligerent and inimical to the norms of civil discourse", as it involves what Harris considers to be "bad ideas, held for bad reasons, leading to bad behavior."[41] In 2015 Harris and secular Islamic activist Maajid Nawaz cowrote Islam and the Future of Tolerance.[54] In this book, Harris argues that the word Islamophobia is a "pernicious meme", a label which prevents discussion about the threat of Islam.[52] Harris has been described in 2020 by Jonathan Matusitz, Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida, as "a champion of the counter-jihad left".[55]

Harris is also critical of the Christian right in politics in the United States, blaming them for the political focus on "pseudo-problems like gay marriage".[56] He is also critical of liberal Christianity – as represented, for instance, by the theology of Paul Tillich – which he argues claims to base its beliefs on the Bible despite actually being influenced by secular modernity. He further states that in so doing liberal Christianity provides rhetorical cover to fundamentalists.[56]

Harris emphasizes that all religions are not the same and that if any religion can be considered a "religion of peace", it is not Islam, but rather Jainism,[40][39][42] which emerged in India around the same time as Buddhism, and has non-violence as its core doctrine.[42] He underscores that to be a practicing Jain, one has to be a vegetarian and a pacifist, while the Jain monks even wear masks in order to avoid breathing in any living thing.[42][39] But, he points out that even the Jain religion has its problems, as Jains believe certain things based on insufficient evidence, which leads to some religious dogmas.[42]

Harris has often noted some positive aspects of Buddhist thought, especially in relation to meditation, such as Buddhism's emphasis that one's behavior and intentions impact the mind, and in order to achieve happiness, one needs to strive towards "overcoming fear and hatred" while "maximizing love and compassion".[42] In 2019, while discussing his book Waking Up: Searching for Spirituality Without Religion, Harris noted that the West could learn a lot from the East about the traditions of meditation found in Hinduism and Buddhism,[14] though he considers that meditation can be practiced without any traditional religious beliefs.[11]

### Spirituality

[edit]

Harris holds that there is "nothing irrational about seeking the states of mind that lie at the core of many religions. Compassion, awe, devotion, and feelings of oneness are surely among the most valuable experiences a person can have",[21] saying:[SH 5]

> Everything of value that people get from religion can be had more honestly, without presuming anything on insufficient evidence. The rest is self-deception, set to music.

> — Sam Harris (15 March 2007), SamHarris.org

Harris rejects the dichotomy between spirituality and rationality, favoring a middle path that preserves spirituality and science but does not involve religion.[57] He writes that spirituality should be understood in light of scientific disciplines like neuroscience and psychology.[57] Science, he contends, can show how to maximize human well-being, but may fail to answer certain questions about the nature of being, answers to some of which he says are discoverable directly through our experience.[57] His conception of spirituality does not involve a belief in any god.[58]

In Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (2014), Harris describes his experience with Dzogchen, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice, and recommends it to his readers.[57] He writes that the purpose of spirituality (as he defines it – he concedes that the term's uses are diverse and sometimes indefensible) is to become aware that our sense of self is illusory, and says this realization brings both happiness and insight into the nature of consciousness, mirroring core Buddhist beliefs.[57][59] This process of realization, he argues, is based on experience and is not contingent on faith.[57][14]

> When you learn how to meditate, you recognize that there is another possibility, which is to be vividly aware of your experience in each moment in a way that frees you from routine misery.

> — Sam Harris (February 2019), The Guardian

### Science and morality

[edit]

See also: Science of morality

Harris considers that the well-being of conscious creatures forms the basis of morality. In The Moral Landscape, he argues that science can in principle answer moral questions and help maximize well-being.[40]

Harris rejects the moral authority of religion, and points to what he sees as failures or misplaced priorities, for example saying that "The Catholic Church is more concerned about preventing contraception than preventing child rape".[40]

Harris also criticizes cultural and moral relativism, arguing that it prevents people from making objective moral judgments about practices that clearly harm human well-being, such as female genital mutilation. Harris contends that we can make scientifically based claims about the negative impacts of such practices on human welfare, and that withholding judgment in these cases is tantamount to claiming complete ignorance about what contributes to human well-being.[40]

### Free will

[edit]

See also: Neuroscience of free will

Harris says that the idea of free will "cannot be mapped on to any conceivable reality" and is incoherent.[1] Harris writes in Free Will that neuroscience "reveals you to be a biochemical puppet".[60]

Philosopher Daniel Dennett argued that Harris's book Free Will successfully refuted the common understanding of free will, but that he failed to respond adequately to the compatibilist understanding of free will. Dennett said the book was valuable because it expressed the views of many eminent scientists, but that it nonetheless contained a "veritable museum of mistakes" and that "Harris and others need to do their homework if they want to engage with the best thought on the topic."[61]

### Artificial intelligence

[edit]

Harris is particularly concerned with existential risks from artificial general intelligence, a topic he has discussed in depth in several episodes of his podcast.[62][SH 6][SH 7][63][64] In a 2016 TED talk, he argued that it will be a major threat in the future, and criticized the lack of human interest on the subject.[65] He said that artificial superintelligence will inevitably be developed if three assumptions hold true: intelligence is a product of information processing in physical systems, humans will continue to improve intelligent machines, and human intelligence is far from the peak of possible intelligence.[65] He described making artificial superintelligence safe as "one of the greatest challenges our species will ever face", indicating that it would warrant immediate consideration.[65]

## Political views

[edit]

Harris describes himself as a liberal, even though he criticizes some aspects of both right and left. He is a registered Democrat[66] and has never voted Republican in presidential elections.[33] He supports same-sex marriage and decriminalizing drugs.[67]

### Criticism of the George W. Bush administration

[edit]

Harris frequently criticized George W. Bush over his support for intelligent design and his coziness with Christianity.[68][69]

In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in 2006, Harris said that he supported most of the criticism against the Bush administration's war in Iraq, and all criticism of fiscal policy and the administration's treatment of science. Harris also said that liberalism has grown "dangerously out of touch with the realities of our world" regarding threats posed by Islamic fundamentalism.[67] Harris criticized the Bush administration for its use of torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay, but also argued that there can be a rational case for torture in rare circumstances.[70][71]

### Israel

[edit]

Harris opposes religious claims to Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. Nonetheless, Harris has said that due to the hostility towards Jews, if there is one religious group which needs protections in the form of a state, it is Jews and the state of Israel.[SH 8][72]

Harris has criticized both Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas for committing war crimes in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He said in 2014 that he believes Israel genuinely wants peace and that its neighbors are more devoted to the destruction of Israel. Harris has also said that Hamas is more guilty than the IDF with regard to war crimes citing Hamas' use of human shields and genocidal rhetoric towards the Jews.[SH 8][72] He names these as reasons that Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas.[SH 9][72]

During the Gaza war that began in October 2023, Harris expressed support for Israel and rejected arguments that Israel provoked Hamas by building Israeli settlements in the West Bank, arguing that Gaza had not been occupied since 2005. He also condemned the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, which led to the war.[SH 10] He described his July 2, 2024 interview with a former Knesset member as discussing "the bias against Israel at the United Nations, the nature of double standards, the precedent set by Israel in its conduct in the war in Gaza, the shapeshifting quality of antisemitism, anti-Zionism as the newest strain of Jew hatred, the 'Zionism is racism' resolution at the UN, the lie that Israel is an apartheid state, the notion that Israel is perpetrating a 'genocide' against the Palestinians, the Marxist oppressed-oppressor narrative, the false moral equivalence between the atrocities committed by Hamas and the deaths of noncombatants in Gaza ...."[73] In July 2025, Harris wrote that despite his support for the war he has some reservations regarding his support for Israel citing allegations of corruption against Benjamin Netanyahu and the influence of religious extremists on the Israeli government.[74]

In June 2025, Harris supported Operation Midnight Hammer, which authorized military strikes against Iran nuclear facilities amid the ongoing Iran–Israel war.[75]

### Presidential elections

[edit]

In the 2008 United States presidential election, he supported the candidacy of Barack Obama and opposed Republican John McCain's candidacy.[SH 11][76] During the 2016 United States presidential election, Harris supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party presidential primaries against Bernie Sanders,[77] and despite calling her "a terribly flawed candidate for the presidency", he favored her in the general election and came out strongly in opposition to Donald Trump's candidacy.[SH 12][34] Harris has criticized Trump for lying, stating in 2018 that Trump "has assaulted truth more than anyone in human history".[34]

In the 2020 United States presidential election, Harris supported Andrew Yang in the Democratic primaries.[78] Harris also introduced Yang to podcaster Joe Rogan.[79] After the 2020 election, he said that he did not care what was on Hunter Biden's laptop, telling the Triggernometry podcast that "Hunter Biden literally could have had the corpses of children in his basement – I would not have cared",[80] arguing more broadly that both Trump and Biden had been in the public eye for decades, and that Biden would have had to have engaged in an extraordinarily large scale of mendacity to come even close to the level of scandal Trump is known to have engaged in.

In the 2024 United States presidential election, Harris endorsed Kamala Harris. Just a few days before the elections, he joined in a debate on the Honestly podcast where he argued in favor of supporting Kamala Harris, while Ben Shapiro presented the case for Donald Trump.[81] After Kamala Harris lost the election, he blamed Democrats for their embrace of identity politics, gender identity,[82] and the Biden administration for poor handling of immigration at the southern border.[83]

### Economics

[edit]

Harris supports raising taxes on the wealthy and reducing government spending, and has criticized billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for paying relatively little in tax. He has proposed taxing 10% for estates worth above 10 million dollars, taxing 50% for estates worth over a billion dollars, and then using the money to fund an infrastructure bank.[SH 13]

He has accused conservatives of perceiving raising taxes as a form of theft or punishment, and of believing that by being rich they create value for others.[84][SH 13] He has described this view as ludicrous, saying that "markets aren't perfectly reflective of the value of goods and services, and many wealthy people don't create much in the way of value for others. In fact, as our recent financial crisis has shown, it is possible for a few people to become extraordinarily rich by wrecking the global economy".[SH 13]

### Gun rights

[edit]

Harris owns guns and wrote in 2015 that he understood people's hostility towards gun culture in the United States and the political influence of the National Rifle Association of America. However, he argued that there is a rational case for gun ownership due to the fact that the police cannot always be relied on and that guns are a good alternative.[85][SH 14]

Harris has stated that he disagrees with proposals by liberals and gun control advocates for restricting guns, such as the assault weapons ban, since more gun crimes are committed with handguns than the semi-automatic weapons which the ban would target. Harris has also said that the left-wing media gets many things wrong about guns. He has, however, offered support for certain regulations on gun ownership, such as mandatory training, licensure, and background checks before a gun can be legally purchased.[SH 14]

### COVID-19 pandemic

[edit]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he criticized commentators for pushing views on COVID-19 that he considered to be "patently insane". Harris accused these commentators of believing that COVID-19 policies were a way of implementing social control and to crackdown on people's freedom politically.[86] Harris has feuded with Bret Weinstein over his views on COVID-19.[87] In 2023, he said that if COVID-19 had killed more children, there would be no patience for vaccine skepticism.[88]

In March 2023, he hosted Matt Ridley and Alina Chan on his podcast to discuss the origins of COVID-19 and the potential that the COVID-19 virus was made in a lab.[SH 15][89]

### Intellectual dark web

[edit]

Harris has been described, alongside others such as Joe Rogan, Bret Weinstein, and Jordan Peterson, as a member of the intellectual dark web, a group that opposes political correctness and identity politics.[90] New York Times book reviewer Bari Weiss described the group as "a collection of iconoclastic thinkers, academic renegades, and media personalities who are having a rolling conversation - on podcasts, YouTube and Twitter, and in sold-out auditoriums - that sound unlike anything else happening, at least publicly, in the culture right now."[34]

In November 2020, Harris stated that he does not identify as a part of that group.[9][10] In 2021 Harris stated that he had "turn[ed] in [his] imaginary membership card to this imaginary organization".[91] In 2023 during an interview with The Daily Beast, Harris explained that he had broken away from the intellectual dark web due to disagreements with Bret Weinstein, and Maajid Nawaz's "obsession" with COVID-19 conspiracy theories and criticism of COVID-19 policies. He also described becoming disenchanted with Dave Rubin for having been captured by his audience and said "Rubin became far more cynical than I would have thought possible. And it's very depressing. He was a friend, he's not a friend anymore".[92]

## Controversies

[edit]

This "criticism" or "controversy" section may compromise the article's neutrality. Please help rewrite or integrate negative information into other sections through discussion on the talk page. (November 2023)

|

### Race and IQ controversy

[edit]

In April 2017, Harris hosted the social scientist Charles Murray on his podcast, discussing topics including the heritability of IQ and race and intelligence.[SH 16] Harris stated the invitation was out of indignation at a violent protest against Murray at Middlebury College the month before and not out of particular interest in the material at hand.[SH 16] The podcast episode garnered significant criticism, most notably from Vox[35][93] and Slate.[94] In the Vox article, scientists, including Eric Turkheimer, Kathryn Paige Harden, and Richard E. Nisbett, accused Harris of participating in "pseudoscientific racialist speculation" and peddling "junk science". Harris and Murray were defended by commentators Andrew Sullivan[95] and Kyle Smith.[96] Harris and Vox editor-at-large Ezra Klein later discussed the affair in a podcast interview in which Klein accused Harris of "thinking tribally" and Harris accused the Vox article of leading people to think he was racist.[97][98]

### Accusations of Islamophobia

[edit]

Harris has been accused of Islamophobia by linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky.[99] After Harris and Chomsky exchanged a series of emails on terrorism and U.S. foreign policy in 2015, Chomsky said Harris had not prepared adequately for the exchange and that this revealed his work as unserious.[100] In a 2016 interview with Al Jazeera English's UpFront, Chomsky further criticized Harris, saying he "specializes in hysterical, slanderous charges against people he doesn't like".[99] Other writers and political commentators including Glenn Greenwald,[101] Reza Aslan,[102] Chris Hedges, and Nathan J. Robinson have also accused Harris of Islamophobia and/or bigotry.[103][104][SH 17][105] Hedges and Robinson have also criticized Harris for discussing in an excerpt from The End of Faith the possibility of a nuclear first strike against an Islamist regime that would have acquired long-range nuclear weapons and that would be undeterred by the threat of mutual destruction due to beliefs in jihad and martyrdom.[106][SH 18][107]

Harris has countered that his views on this and other topics are frequently misrepresented by "unethical critics" who "deliberately" take his words out of context.[41] He has also criticized the validity of the term "Islamophobia".[108] "My criticism of Islam is a criticism of beliefs and their consequences, but my fellow liberals reflexively view it as an expression of intolerance toward people",[SH 19] he wrote following a disagreement with actor Ben Affleck in October 2014 on the show Real Time with Bill Maher. Affleck had described Harris's and host Bill Maher's views on Muslims as "gross" and "racist", and Harris's statement that "Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas" as an "ugly thing to say". Affleck also compared Harris's and Maher's rhetoric to that of people who use antisemitic canards or define African-Americans in terms of intraracial crime.[109] Several conservative American media pundits in turn criticized Affleck and praised Harris and Maher for broaching the topic, saying that discussing it had become taboo.[110]

Harris's dialogue on Islam with Maajid Nawaz received a combination of positive reviews[111][112][113] and mixed reviews.[114][115] Irshad Manji wrote: "Their back-and-forth clarifies multiple confusions that plague the public conversation about Islam." Of Harris specifically, she said "[he] is right that liberals must end their silence about the religious motives behind much Islamist terror. At the same time, he ought to call out another double-standard that feeds the liberal reflex to excuse Islamists: Atheists do not make nearly enough noise about hatred toward Muslims".[115]

Harris opposed Executive Order 13769, which limited the entry of refugees from Muslim-majority countries to the United States, stating that it was "unethical with regard to the plight of refugees...and bound to be ineffective in stopping the spread of Islamism".[116]

Hatewatch staff at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) wrote that members of the "skeptics" movement, of which Harris is "one of the most public faces", help to "channel people into the alt-right".[117] Bari Weiss wrote that the SPLC had misrepresented Harris's views.[34]

## Reception and recognition

[edit]

Harris's first two books, in which he lays out his criticisms of religion, received negative reviews from Christian scholars.[56][118][119] From secular sources, the books received a mixture of negative reviews[120][121][122] and positive reviews.[123][124][125][126] In his review of The End of Faith, American historian Alexander Saxton criticized what he called Harris's "vitriolic and selective polemic against Islam", (emphasis in original) which he said "obscure[s] the obvious reality that the invasion of Iraq and the War against Terror are driven by religious irrationalities, cultivated and conceded to, at high policy levels in the U.S., and which are at least comparable to the irrationality of Islamic crusaders and Jihadists".[120] By contrast, Stephanie Merritt wrote of the same book that Harris's "central argument in The End of Faith is sound: Religion is the only area of human knowledge in which it is still acceptable to hold beliefs dating from antiquity and a modern society should subject those beliefs to the same principles that govern scientific, medical or geographical inquiry - particularly if they are inherently hostile to those with different ideas".[123] Harris's first book, The End of Faith (2004), won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction.[127]

Harris's next two books, which discuss philosophical issues relating to ethics and free will, received several negative academic reviews.[128][129][130][131][132][133] In his review of The moral Landscape, neuroscientist Kenan Malik criticized Harris for not engaging adequately with philosophical literature: "Imagine a sociologist who wrote about evolutionary theory without discussing the work of Darwin, Fisher, Mayr, Hamilton, Trivers, or Dawkins on the grounds that he did not come to his conclusions by reading about biology and because discussing concepts such as 'adaptation', 'speciation', 'homology', 'phylogenetics', or 'kin selection' would 'increase the amount of boredom in the universe'. How seriously would we, and should we, take his argument?".[131] On the other hand, The moral Landscape received a largely-positive review from psychologists James Diller and Andrew Nuzzolilli.[134] Additionally, Free Will received a mixed academic review from philosopher Paul Pardi, who said that while it suffers from some conceptual confusions and that the core argument is a bit too "breezy", it serves as a "good primer on key ideas in physicalist theories of freedom and the will".[135]

Harris's book on spirituality and meditation received mainly positive reviews[136][137][57][59] as well as some mixed reviews.[138][58] It was praised by Frank Bruni, for example, who described it as "so entirely of this moment, so keenly in touch with the growing number of Americans who are willing to say that they do not find the succor they crave, or a truth that makes sense to them, in organized religion."[136]

In 2018, Robert Wright, a visiting professor of science and religion at Union Theological Seminary, published an article in Wired criticizing Harris, whom he described as "annoying" and "deluded". Wright wrote that Harris, despite claiming to be a champion of rationality, ignored his own cognitive biases and engaged in faulty and inconsistent arguments in his book The End of Faith. He wrote that "the famous proponent of New Atheism is on a crusade against tribalism but seems oblivious to his own version of it." Wright wrote that these biases are rooted in natural selection and impact everyone, but that they can be mitigated when acknowledged.[98]

The UK Business Insider included Harris's podcast in their list of "8 podcasts that will change how you think about human behavior" in 2017,[139] and PC Magazine included it in their list of "The Best Podcasts of 2018".[140] In January 2020, Max Sanderson included Harris's podcast as a "Producer pick" in a "podcasts of the week" section for The Guardian.[32] The Waking Up podcast won the 2017 Webby Award for "People's Voice" in the category "Science & Education" under "Podcasts & Digital Audio".[141]

Harris was included on a list of the "100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People 2019" in the Watkins Review, a publication of Watkins Books, a London esoterica bookshop.[142]

## Personal life

[edit]

In 2004, Harris married Annaka Harris (née Gorton), an author and editor of nonfiction and scientific books, after engaging in a common interest about the nature of consciousness.[143] They have two daughters[144][SH 20] and live in Los Angeles.[145]

In September 2020, Harris became a member of Giving What We Can, an effective altruism organization whose members pledge to give at least 10% of their income to effective charities, both as an individual and as a company with Waking Up.[38][37]

Harris practices Brazilian jiu-jitsu.[146][4]

## Works

[edit]

### Books

[edit]

* Harris, Sam (2004). The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-03515-8. OCLC 62265386.
* Harris, Sam (2006). Letter to a Christian Nation. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN 0-307-26577-3. OCLC 70158553.
* Harris, Sam (2010). The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values. Free Press. ISBN 978-1-4391-7121-9. OCLC 535493357.
* Harris, Sam (2011). Lying. Four Elephants Press. ISBN 978-1-940051-00-0.
* Harris, Sam (2012). Free Will. Free Press. ISBN 978-1-4516-8340-0.
* Harris, Sam (2014a). Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4516-3601-7.
* Harris, Sam; Nawaz, Maajid (2015). Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-08870-2.
* Harris, Sam; Dawkins, Richard; Dennett, Daniel; Hitchens, Christopher (2019). The Four Horsemen: The Discussion that Sparked an Atheist Revolution. Bantam Press. ISBN 978-0-593-08039-9.
* Harris, Sam (2020). Making Sense: Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity. Ecco. ISBN 978-0-06-285778-1.

### Documentary

[edit]

* Amila, D. & Shapiro, J. (2018). Islam and the Future of Tolerance. United States: The Orchard.[147]

### Peer-reviewed articles

[edit]

* Harris, S.; Sheth, S. A.; Cohen, M. S. (February 27, 2008). "Functional neuroimaging of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty". Annals of Neurology. 63 (2): 141–147\. doi:10.1002/ana.21301. PMID 18072236. S2CID 17335600.
* Harris, S.; Kaplan, J. T.; Curiel, A.; Bookheimer, S. Y.; Iacoboni, M.; Cohen, M. S. (October 1, 2009). Sporns, Olaf (ed.). "The Neural Correlates of Religious and Nonreligious Belief". PLOS One. 4 (10): e7272. Bibcode:2009PLoSO...4.7272H. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007272. PMC 2748718. PMID 19794914.
* Douglas, P. K.; Harris, S.; Yuille, A.; Cohen, M. S. (May 15, 2011). "Performance comparison of machine learning algorithms and number of independent components used in fMRI decoding of belief vs. disbelief". NeuroImage. 56 (2): 544–553\. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.11.002. PMC 3099263. PMID 21073969.
* Kaplan, Jonas T.; Gimbel, Sarah I.; Harris, Sam (December 23, 2016). "Neural correlates of maintaining one's political beliefs in the face of counterevidence". Scientific Reports. 6: 39589. Bibcode:2016NatSR...639589K. doi:10.1038/srep39589. PMC 5180221. PMID 28008965.
* Seitz, Benjamin M.; Aktipis, Athena; Buss, David M.; Alcock, Joe; Bloom, Paul; Gelfand, Michele; Harris, Sam; Lieberman, Debra; Horowitz, Barbara N.; Pinker, Steven; Wilson, David Sloan; Haselton, Martie G. (November 10, 2020). "The pandemic exposes human nature: 10 evolutionary insights". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117 (45): 27767–27776\. Bibcode:2020PNAS..11727767S. doi:10.1073/pnas.2009787117. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 7668083. PMID 33093198.

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Now named Waking Up: Guided Meditation

## References

[edit]

### Harris blog citations

[edit]

1. ^ Harris, Sam (September 15, 2014). "I'm Not the Sexist Pig You're Looking For". www.samharris.org. Archived from the original on April 18, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
2. ^ Harris, Sam (November 11, 2012). "Science on the Brink of Death". Archived from the original on September 9, 2017. Retrieved November 14, 2012.
3. ^ "Meme #8". Sam Harris. May 3, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
4. ^ "The Reality of Islam". Sam Harris. February 8, 2006. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
5. ^ Harris, Sam (March 15, 2007). "God's Dupes". SamHarris.org. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
6. ^ "#312 – The Trouble with AI". Sam Harris. March 7, 2023. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
7. ^ "#116 – AI: Racing Toward the Brink". Sam Harris. February 6, 2018. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
8. ^ a b "#2 — Why Don't I Criticize Israel?". Sam Harris. July 27, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
9. ^ "Making Sense of Gaza | A Conversation Between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan". Sam Harris. August 12, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
10. ^ "The Sin of Moral Equivalence". Sam Harris. Retrieved November 4, 2023.
11. ^ "What Barack Obama Could Not (and Should Not) Say". Sam Harris. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
12. ^ Harris, Sam. Trump in Exile Archived February 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. samharris.org, October 13, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2017
13. ^ a b c "How Rich is Too Rich?". Sam Harris. August 17, 2011. Archived from the original on November 25, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
14. ^ a b "The Riddle of the Gun". Sam Harris. January 2, 2013. Archived from the original on November 26, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
15. ^ "Sam Harris | #311 – Did SARS-CoV-2 Escape from a Lab?". www.samharris.org. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
16. ^ a b Harris, Sam (March 27, 2018). "Ezra Klein: Editor-at-Large". SamHarris.org. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
17. ^ "Dear Angry Lunatic: A Response to Chris Hedges". Sam Harris. July 26, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
18. ^ "Sam Harris | Home of the Making Sense Podcast". Sam Harris. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
19. ^ Harris, Sam (October 7, 2014), "Can Liberalism Be Saved From Itself?", Sam Harris, archived from the original on December 26, 2014, retrieved December 26, 2014
20. ^ Harris, Sam (July 4, 2011). "Drugs and the Meaning of Life". Sam Harris. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved November 5, 2014.

### General citations

[edit]

1. ^ a b Paul Pardi (May 15, 2012). "An Analysis of Sam Harris' Free Will". Philosophy News. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
2. ^ a b Madigan, Tim (2010). "Meet the New Atheism / Same as the Old Atheism?". Philosophy Now. Retrieved August 15, 2018.
3. ^ Bullivant, Stephen; Ruse, Michael, eds. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Atheism. Oxford University Press (OUP). p. 246\. ISBN 978-0-19-964465-0. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
4. ^ a b Wood, Graeme (April 24, 2013). "The Atheist Who Strangled Me". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
5. ^ Greenwald, Glenn (April 3, 2013). "Sam Harris, the New Atheists, and anti-Muslim animus". The Guardian.
6. ^ Religion, Politics, Free Speech | Sam Harris | ACADEMIA | Rubin Report from the YouTube channel The Rubin Report, September 11, 2015.
7. ^ "Atheists Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris face Islamophobia backlash". The Independent. April 13, 2013.
8. ^ Weiss, Bari (May 8, 2018). "Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
9. ^ a b Nguyen, Tina; Goldenberg, Sally (March 15, 2021). "How Yang charmed the right on his road to political stardom". Politico.
10. ^ a b "#225 – Republic of Lies". November 18, 2020. Archived from the original on October 30, 2021 – via YouTube.
11. ^ a b Purser, Ronald; Cooper, Andrew (December 6, 2014). "Mindfulness' 'truthiness' problem: Sam Harris, science and the truth about Buddhist tradition". Salon. Retrieved July 2, 2024.
12. ^ Current Biography, January 2012, Vol. 73, Issue 1, p. 37
13. ^ "Playboy Interview: Sam Harris". Playboy. Vol. 66, no. 1\. Winter 2019. p. 44.
14. ^ a b c d e Anthony, Andrew (February 16, 2019). "Sam Harris, the new atheist with a spiritual side". The Observer. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
15. ^ Anderson, Jon (October 20, 1985). "'Girls' Series is solid gold for Harris". Chicago Tribune TV Week. Retrieved September 18, 2013.
16. ^ Samuels, David (May 29, 2012). "Q&A: Sam Harris". Tablet. Archived from the original on January 27, 2023. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
17. ^ Sam Harris – Extended Interview; PBS: Religion & Ethics Newsweekly; January 5, 2007
18. ^ "Sam Harris." (2008). The Science Studio. Science Network. October 3, 2008. Transcript.
19. ^ Harris, Sam (June 28, 2011). "MDMA Caution with Sam Harris" – via YouTube.
20. ^ "First Time Sam Harris Took E", Cogent Canine, December 6, 2017, archived from the original on June 2, 2020, retrieved December 8, 2017 – via YouTube
21. ^ a b c Miller, Lisa (2010). "Sam Harris Believes in God". Newsweek.
22. ^ a b c d e f Segal, David (October 26, 2006). "Atheist Evangelist". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 4, 2023. Alternative link
23. ^ Morrison, Patt (September 24, 2014). "No God? No problem, says god-free thinker Sam Harris". [Opinion]. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
24. ^ Rice, Lewis I. (2005). "The Iconoclast: Sam Harris wants believers to stop believing". Stanford Magazine. Stanford Alumni Association. Archived from the original on October 16, 2009.
25. ^ "Sam Harris". The Information Philosopher. Retrieved April 30, 2016.
26. ^ Greenberg, Brad A. (April 1, 2008). "Making Belief". UCLA Magazine. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
27. ^ a b Healy, Melissa (September 30, 2009). "Religion: The heart believes what it will, but the brain behaves the same either way". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 24, 2014. Retrieved October 17, 2009.
28. ^ Harris, Sam (2009). The Moral Landscape: How Science Could Determine Human Values (PhD dissertation). UCLA. ISBN 978-1-124-01190-5. ProQuest 366925574. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
29. ^ Bowles, Nellie (December 14, 2018). "Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 24, 2018. Retrieved August 30, 2019. "On Dec. 6, Patreon kicked the anti-feminist polemic Carl Benjamin, who works under the name Sargon of Akkad, off its site for using racist language on YouTube. That same week, it removed the right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos a day after he opened an account.

"The moves prompted a revolt. Mr. Harris, citing worries about censorship, announced that he would leave Patreon. ...

[...]

"... Mr. Harris, who gathered his fan base as a pugnacious atheist and fierce critic of Islam ..."
30. ^ a b "Sam Harris". Edge.org. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
31. ^ Van Biema, David (December 14, 2007). "What Your Brain Looks Like on Faith". Time. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
32. ^ a b Davies, Hannah J; Verdier, Hannah; Sanderson, Max (January 3, 2020). "The con woman who scammed New York's elite – podcasts of the week". The Guardian. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
33. ^ a b c "Waking Up with Sam Harris". iTunes – Podcasts. September 13, 2022. Retrieved September 13, 2022. "I have been, traditionally, a liberal. I have never voted republican ... certainly not for president."
34. ^ a b c d e Weiss, Bari (May 8, 2018). "Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web". The New York Times. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
35. ^ a b Turkheimer, Eric; Harden, Kathryn Paige; Nisbett, Richard E. (May 18, 2017). "Charles Murray is once again peddling junk science about race and IQ". Vox. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
36. ^ Freeland, Ben (March 29, 2019). "Sam Harris' Waking Up App, Reviewed". Medium. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
37. ^ a b c "Waking Up Turns 2". Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
38. ^ a b "Members". www.givingwhatwecan.org. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
39. ^ a b c "Sam Harris Compares Islam with Jainism and Tells Which one of Them is the Religion of Peace". Jains Today. September 6, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2024. "Jainism is a religion of peace"
40. ^ a b c d e Don, Katherine (October 17, 2010). "'The Moral Landscape': Why science should shape morality". Salon.com. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
41. ^ a b c Harris, Sam (June 21, 2014). "Response to Controversy". Archived from the original on October 24, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
42. ^ a b c d e f "The Temple of Reason Sam Harris On How Religion Puts The World At Risk". Sun Magazine. September 1, 2006. Retrieved July 2, 2024. "Jainism is the best example that I know of [a peaceful religion]. ... Nonviolence is its core doctrine"
43. ^ September 22, 2006 [1] (a 90-minute debate).
44. ^ Harris, Sam; Sullivan, Andrew (January 16, 2007). "Is Religion 'Built Upon Lies'?" Beliefnet.
45. ^ Harris, Sam; Warren, Rick (April 8, 2007). "Newsweek Poll: 90% Believe in God". Newsweek.
46. ^ Padilla, Steve (December 29, 2007). "Rabbi, atheist debate with passion, humor". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
47. ^ Harris, Dan; Brown, Ely (March 22, 2010). "'Nightline' 'Face-Off': Does God Have a Future?". ABC News. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
48. ^ Schneider, Nathan (July 1, 2013). "The New Theist". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
49. ^ Ruffolo, Michael (June 26, 2018). "Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson waste a lot of time, then talk about God for 20 minutes". National Observer. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
50. ^ Murray, Douglas (September 16, 2018). "Arena talks in Dublin and London with Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris and Douglas Murray". The Spectator USA. Archived from the original on April 23, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
51. ^ Jennek, Rafal (2017). Sam Harris on Religion in Peace and Conflict (PDF) (Thesis). Department of Theology, Uppsala University. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
52. ^ a b Adams, Alex (2016). Political Torture in Popular Culture: The Role of Representations in the Post-9/11 Torture Debate. Routledge. p. 29\. ISBN 978-1-317-28939-5.
53. ^ "The Four Horsemen by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett: 9780525511953 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved September 14, 2024.
54. ^ Harris, Sam; Maajid, Nawaz (2015). Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-08870-2. Archived from the original on May 7, 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
55. ^ Matusitz, Jonathan (2020). Communication in Global Jihad. Routledge. p. 1988\. ISBN 978-1-000-22435-1.
56. ^ a b c Mohler, R. Albert Jr. (August 19, 2004). "The End of Faith – Secularism with the Gloves Off". The Christian Post. Archived from the original on June 29, 2012. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
57. ^ a b c d e f g Clothier, Peter (September 2, 2016). "Waking Up, by Sam Harris: A Book Review". Huffington Post. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
58. ^ a b Smith, Holly (September 17, 2014). "Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion". Washington Independent Review of Books. Retrieved October 2, 2017.
59. ^ a b "Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion". Kirkus Reviews. August 29, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
60. ^ Nahmias, Eddy (August 13, 2012). "Does Contemporary Neuroscience Support or Challenge the Reality of Free Will?". Big Questions Online.
61. ^ Dennett, Daniel (2017). "Reflections on Sam Harris' Free Will". Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia. 8 (3): 214–230\. doi:10.4453/rifp.2017.0018. ISSN 2039-4667.
62. ^ Harris, Sam (2015). "Can We Avoid a Digital Apocalypse?". Edge.org. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
63. ^ "Sam Harris | #385 - AI Utopia". Sam Harris. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
64. ^ "Sam Harris | #332 - Can We Contain Artificial Intelligence?". Sam Harris. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
65. ^ a b c Davey, Tucker (October 7, 2016). "Sam Harris TED Talk: Can We Build AI Without Losing Control Over It?". Future of Life Institute. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
66. ^ "Sam Harris: Trump, Reparations, Manifestos, Fox News". The David Pakman Show. September 9, 2019. Event occurs at 03:50. Archived from the original on October 30, 2021. Retrieved November 21, 2019. "I'm a registered Democrat"
67. ^ a b Harris, Sam (September 18, 2006). "Head-in-the-Sand Liberals: Western civilization really is at risk from Muslim extremists." Los Angeles Times. Archived at the Wayback Machine.
68. ^ comerj (January 5, 2007). "January 5, 2007 ~ Sam Harris Extended Interview | January 5, 2007 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly". Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
69. ^ "Sam Harris | Home of the Making Sense Podcast". Sam Harris. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
70. ^ "In Defense of Torture". HuffPost. October 17, 2005. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
71. ^ "Sam Harris | Home of the Making Sense Podcast". Sam Harris. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
72. ^ a b c Salon Staff (July 28, 2014). "Sam Harris: Why don't I criticize Israel?". Salon. Retrieved April 13, 2023.
73. ^ #373 — Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism, July 2, 2024, retrieved January 4, 2025
74. ^ Harris, Sam (July 3, 2025). "Islam, Israel, and the Tragedy of Gaza". Sam Harris. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
75. ^ Harris, Sam (June 22, 2025). "The Right War". Sam Harris. Retrieved June 28, 2025.
76. ^ "What Barack Obama Could Not (and Should Not) Say". HuffPost. March 21, 2008. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
77. ^ "Sam Harris Q&A: 'Why I'm Voting For Hillary Clinton'". February 18, 2016. Archived from the original on October 30, 2021 – via YouTube.
78. ^ Harris, Sam (November 6, 2020). "I sure hope Andrew Yang has a significant job in D.C. next year..." Twitter. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
79. ^ Weiss, Bari (January 31, 2020). "Opinion | Did I Just Get Yanged?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
80. ^ Chung, Frank (August 19, 2022). "Author Sam Harris says he wouldn't care if Hunter Biden had 'corpses of children in his basement'". News.com.au.
81. ^ "Trump or Kamala? Ben Shapiro and Sam Harris Debate". The Free Press. October 29, 2024. Retrieved November 14, 2024.
82. ^ "A Democratic Reckoning on "Gender Identity"?". City Journal. Retrieved May 24, 2025.
83. ^ Harris, Sam (November 11, 2024). "The Reckoning". Sam Harris. Retrieved May 24, 2025.
84. ^ "Head-in-the-Sand Liberals". Los Angeles Times. November 1, 2006. Archived from the original on November 1, 2006. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
85. ^ "Why I own guns". The Week. January 9, 2015. Archived from the original on May 14, 2015. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
86. ^ "Sam Harris Blasts Podcasters Pushing Covid Conspiracies". Mediaite. December 15, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
87. ^ "I tried to talk about the hard issues America faces. Then the social media storm erupted". USA TODAY. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
88. ^ Silverstein, Joe (January 16, 2023). "Podcaster Sam Harris: If COVID killed more children there'd be 'no f
ing patience' for vaccine skeptics". Fox News. Retrieved March 14, 2023.
89. ^ Salzberg, Steven. "The Scientific Error That Might Have Caused The Covid-19 Pandemic". Forbes. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
90. ^ Weiss, Bari; Winter, Damon (January 31, 2020). "Opinion | Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
91. ^ Wakeling, Adam (July 1, 2021). "What Happened to the Intellectual Dark Web?". RealClearPolicy. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
92. ^ Fisher, Anthony L. (January 19, 2023). "The Intellectual Dark Web's Descent Into Paranoia and Trumpism". The Daily Beast. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
93. ^ Klein, Ezra (March 27, 2018). "Sam Harris, Charles Murray, and the allure of race science". Vox. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
94. ^ Saletan, William (April 27, 2018). "Stop Talking About Race and IQ". Slate. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
95. ^ Sullivan, Andrew (March 30, 2018). "Denying Genetics Isn't Shutting Down Racism, It's Fueling It". New York – Intelligencer. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
96. ^ Smith, Kyle (April 20, 2018). "Ezra Klein's Intellectual Demagoguery". National Review. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
97. ^ Klein, Ezra (April 9, 2018). "The Sam Harris debate". Vox. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
98. ^ a b Wright, Robert (May 17, 2018). "Sam Harris and the Myth of Perfectly Rational Thought". Wired. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
99. ^ a b "Noam Chomsky tells 'UpFront' he would "absolutely" vote for Hillary Clinton". Al Jazeera. January 25, 2016. Retrieved July 30, 2020.
100. ^ "Scoring the Noam Chomsky/Sam Harris debate: How the professor knocked out the atheist". Salon. May 8, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
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102. ^ "Sam Harris | Home of the Making Sense Podcast". Sam Harris. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
103. ^ Wilder, Charly (March 13, 2008). "I don't believe in atheists". Salon. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
104. ^ Harris, Sam (July 27, 2011). "Sam Harris Responds to Chris Hedges' 'Fundamentalism Kills' Column". Truthdig. Retrieved February 16, 2025.
105. ^ Robinson, Nathan J. (July 27, 2022). "Why We Still Need Atheism". Current Affairs. ISSN 2471-2647. Retrieved May 12, 2025.
106. ^ Massey, Eli; Robinson, Nathan J. (October 12, 2018). "Being Mr. Reasonable". Current Affairs. ISSN 2471-2647. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
107. ^ Wilder, Charly (March 13, 2008). "I don't believe in atheists". Salon. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
108. ^ Taylor, Jerome (April 12, 2013). "Atheists Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris face Islamophobia backlash". The Independent.
109. ^ Child, Ben (October 7, 2014). "Ben Affleck: Sam Harris and Bill Maher 'racist' and 'gross' in views of Islam". The Guardian. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
110. ^ Bond, Paul (October 8, 2014). "Ben Affleck Targeted by Conservatives After Islamism Spat With Bill Maher". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
111. ^ Stewart, Brian (October 7, 2015). "A Liberal Atheist and a Liberal Muslim Discuss the Problems of Contemporary Islam". National Review.
112. ^ "Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue". Publishers Weekly. October 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
113. ^ Sonenshine, Tara. "Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue". New York Journal of Books. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
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115. ^ a b Manji, Irshad (November 3, 2015). "'Islam and the Future of Tolerance' and 'Not in God's Name'". The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2016.
116. ^ Harris, Sam (January 29, 2017). "A Few Thoughts On The Muslim Ban". Sam Harris.org. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
117. ^ Hatewatch Staff (April 19, 2018). "McInnes, Molyneux, and 4chan: Investigating pathways to the alt-right". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
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119. ^ Novak, Michael (March 19, 2007). "Lonely Atheists of the Global Village". National Review. [Book reviews: Letter to a Christian Nation, by Sam Harris; Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, by Daniel C. Dennett; and The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins.] Archived from the original on May 16, 2013 – via Sam Harris. Via – American Enterprise Institute AEI Archived February 27, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
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131. ^ a b Malik, Kenan (April 14, 2011). "Test-tube truths". newhumanist.org.uk. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
132. ^ "Is Sam Harris Right About Free Will?: A Book Review". The Table. Biola University Center for Christian Thought. May 26, 2014. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
133. ^ Dennett, Daniel (2017). "Reflections on Sam Harris' Free Will". Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia. 8 (3): 214–230\. doi:10.4453/rifp.2017.0018. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
134. ^ Diller, J. W.; Nuzzolilli, A. E. (2012). "The Science of Values: The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris". The Behavior Analyst. 35 (2): 265–273\. doi:10.1007/BF03392286. PMC 3501430.
135. ^ Pardi, Paul (May 15, 2012). "An Analysis of Sam Harris's Free Will". Philosophy News. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
136. ^ a b Bruni, Frank (August 30, 2014). "Between Godliness and Godlessness". The New York Times. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
137. ^ Cave, Stephen (October 31, 2014). "Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion, by Sam Harris". Financial Times. Archived from the original on December 11, 2022. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
138. ^ Quirk, Trevor (September 10, 2014). "I Thought I Hated the New Atheists. Then I Read Sam Harris's New Book". The New Republic. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
139. ^ "8 podcasts that will change how you think about human behavior". Business Insider. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
140. ^ Moore, Ben (September 27, 2018). "The Best Podcasts of 2018". PC Magazine. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
141. ^ "The 2017 Webby Awards for the best science and education podcasts". The Webby Awards. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
142. ^ "Watkins' Spiritual 100 List for 2019". Watkins Magazine. April 2019. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
143. ^ "Project Reason Trustees / Advisory Board". www.project-reason.org. Archived from the original on January 12, 2014.
144. ^ Harris 2014a, p. 6: "Dedication: For Annaka, Emma, and Violet".
145. ^ "Sam Harris, the new atheist with a spiritual side". The Guardian. February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2021.
146. ^ Harris 2012.
147. ^ "Islam and the Future of Tolerance". Islam and the Future of Tolerance. Retrieved June 26, 2019.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sam Harris.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Sam Harris.

* Official website
* Sam Harris at TED
* Sam Harris at IMDb
* Library resources in your library and in other libraries by Sam Harris

* v
* t
* e

Sam Harris

Books|

* The End of Faith (2004)
* Letter to a Christian Nation (2006)
* The Moral Landscape (2010)
* Lying (2011)
* Free Will (2012)
* Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (2014)
* Islam and the Future of Tolerance (2015)

Other|

* New Atheism
* Secular Coalition for America
* Spiritual but not religious

* v
* t
* e

Existential risk from artificial intelligence

Concepts|

* AGI
* AI alignment
* AI boom
* AI capability control
* AI safety
* AI takeover
* Consequentialism
* Effective accelerationism
* Ethics of artificial intelligence
* Existential risk from artificial intelligence
* Friendly artificial intelligence
* Instrumental convergence
* Vulnerable world hypothesis
* Intelligence explosion
* Longtermism
* Machine ethics
* Suffering risks
* Superintelligence
* Technological singularity

Organizations|

* Alignment Research Center
* Center for AI Safety
* Center for Applied Rationality
* Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence
* Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
* EleutherAI
* Future of Humanity Institute
* Future of Life Institute
* Google DeepMind
* Humanity+
* Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
* Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence
* Machine Intelligence Research Institute
* OpenAI

People|

* Scott Alexander
* Sam Altman
* Yoshua Bengio
* Nick Bostrom
* Paul Christiano
* Eric Drexler
* Sam Harris
* Stephen Hawking
* Dan Hendrycks
* Geoffrey Hinton
* Bill Joy
* Shane Legg
* Elon Musk
* Steve Omohundro
* Huw Price
* Martin Rees
* Stuart J. Russell
* Jaan Tallinn
* Max Tegmark
* Frank Wilczek
* Roman Yampolskiy
* Eliezer Yudkowsky

Other|

* Artificial Intelligence Act
* Do You Trust This Computer?
* Human Compatible
* Open letter on artificial intelligence (2015)
* Our Final Invention
* Roko's basilisk
* Statement on AI risk of extinction
* Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
* The Precipice

Category

* v
* t
* e

New Atheism

Key people|

* Dan Barker
* Peter Boghossian
* Greta Christina
* Jerry Coyne
* Richard Dawkins
* Daniel Dennett
* Rebecca Goldstein
* Sam Harris
* Christopher Hitchens
* TJ Kirk
* Michel Onfray
* Victor J. Stenger
* Michael Schmidt-Salomon
* Rebecca Watson

Former New Atheists|

* Ayaan Hirsi Ali
* PZ Myers

Major works|

* The End of Faith (2004)
* Atheist Manifesto (2005)
* Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism (2005)
* Breaking the Spell (2006)
* The God Delusion (2006)
* Letter to a Christian Nation (2006)
* The Root of All Evil? (2006)
* God Is Not Great (2007)
* God: The Failed Hypothesis (2007)
* The Portable Atheist (2007)
* Godless (2008)

Institutions|

* The Clergy Project
* Pitchstone Publishing
* Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science

Opposition|

* "Go God Go" (2006)
* Darwin's Angel (2007)
* The Dawkins Delusion? (2007)
* The Irrational Atheist (2008)
* Atheist Delusions (2009)
* The Case for God (2009)
* Unscientific America (2009)
* The Rage Against God (2010)
* The Evolution of Atheism (2015)

Related|

* Blasphemy Day
* Ex-Muslims
* Flying Spaghetti Monster
* Out Campaign
* RationalWiki
* Reason Rally
* Regressive left

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Italy
* Czech Republic
* Portugal
* Netherlands
* Norway
* Latvia
* Croatia
* Greece
* Korea
* Sweden
* Poland
* Israel
* Belgium

Academics|

* CiNii
* Scopus

Artists|

* MusicBrainz

People|

* DDB

Other|

* IdRef
* Yale LUX

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