Purpose of Life with Sam Harris

Sign up for free iOS apps! http://bit.ly/FREEAPPS
Sam Harris, author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, and The Moral Landscape, answers questions submitted by users on Reddit.com.
Hear Sam talk about everything from meditation to religion, and see if one of your questions got answered!

To purchase Sam's books, click the links below:
The End of Faith: http://amzn.to/gIudHF
Letter to a Christian Nation: http://amzn.to/eTemcG
The Moral Landscape: http://amzn.to/jAPZur

Category:

Education

Tags:

• mahalo
• sam harris
• atheism
• religion
• christianity
• god

[doctorespinoza]

One of my favorite parts of the first video was hearing Sam deliver, in his deadpan style, a series of ridiculous user names from reddit, "GoatSandwich1988 asks, 'What is the ontological limit of phenomenology?' This is a good question, GoatSandwich, and one I covered..."

[Vincentaneous]

All those moments will be lost ... like tears in rain.

[XSilvenX]

Extremely well said.

[Vincentaneous]

@jhall38 How do you know that your experience of the reality of God was not just all in your head?  How do you demonstrate to yourself that what you experience[d] is part of the real world outside your head?

[2rainmalt]

@Vincentaneous exaclty what im pondering. i just read about incarnations from this mooney who has been "talking" to edgar cayce.. and incarnations appears to be about learning different fields.. medecine, miners, ect... and dharma and karma.. over and over.. boy! i wish i were dead now

[2rainmalt]

@jhall38 question is? why would u want eternal life? forget jesus hes great.. but just eternal life to consider... 

[2rainmalt]

sam sam sam. klap klap klap.

[jhall38]

Only those who have not experienced the reality of God in their lives could see life as fully comprehensible and meaningful without God. That is a truism. Just the sort of which Harris charges theists in his opening remark. Sam sees what he is inclined to see. That is all. Perhaps he does not suffer enough to discover a kind of "uncertainty" that is more profound than that uncertainty imagined in science. There is an uncertainty that is ineffable, that drives into existence without remorse.

[jhall38]

Of course the moments of an atheist's life can be filled with meaning. None of us has been totally left to the degrading forces of nature. The story is not altogether morose. Yet we know it deeply that our experiences of good things point beyond what is known to superlatives. Language reflects the ways we are driven. "High" transitions to "higher" and "higher" moves to the "highest". Beyond this, we consider "higher than the highest". No, even Sam can't escape this transcendent compulsion.

[jhall38]

This argument only works if "eternity" is assumed to be unreal. That is, it only works if there is no such thing as eternity. Jesus said that the ones who believe in him would have "eternal life" even now. The idea of eternity is that it imbues life with richness and significance. God as the Uncreated Spirit that fills our lives enriches life and makes of death a transition from a rich life filled with beautiful things of the Spirit to a life in which death and suffering no longer figure.

[underdescribed]

He fails to answer the question.

[tiberiius]

@Vincentaneous i've seen things you people wouldn't believe....