Sam Harris - Misconceptions About Atheism

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2007/07/04/Clash_Between_Faith_and_Reason

Author Sam Harris addresses what he feels are several commonly-held misconceptions about atheism.

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"Believing the Unbelievable: The Clash Between Faith and Reason in the Modern World" with Sam Harris speaking at the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival.

Some of the most inspired and provocative thinkers, writers, artists, business people, teachers and other leaders drawn from myriad fields and from across the country and around the world all gathered in a single place - to teach, speak, lead, question, and answer at the 2006 Aspen Ideas Festival. Throughout the week, they all interacted with an audience of thoughtful people who stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought, and discussion.

Sam Harris is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction.

Mr. Harris' writing has been published in over ten languages. He and his work have been discussed in Newsweek, TIME, U.S. News and World Report, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, The Economist, The Guardian, The Independent, The International Herald Tribune, Der Spiegel, The Globe and Mail, New Scientist, Wired, SEED Magazine, and many other journals.

Mr. Harris makes regular appearances on television and radio to talk about the danger that religion now poses to modern societies. His essays have appeared in Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Times of London, The Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He blogs for the Washington Post / Newsweek website: On Faith, the Huffington Post, TruthDig, and Edge.org. Mr. Harris is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University and has studied both Eastern and Western religious traditions, along with a variety of contemplative disciplines, for twenty years. He is completing a doctorate in neuroscience.

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• dawkins
• god
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• religions
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[rsr789]

He's a lot smarter than Bill Stiller.

[Devantium]

he looks like ben stiller

[FutebolFanatico001]

Yes I know. This natural philosophy is the kind of inquiry that almost directly gave rise to the physics discipline. It's the predecessor of physics, if you will. By the way, you missed Copernicus, which preceded the two men you mentioned. He was also a Christian, and a priest at that. Still, the physics of "today" advances way further than anything up until Newton. You have a better chance at saying that the Jews invented modern physics then. Look at Relativity Theory and Quantum Mechanics.

[FutebolFanatico001]

Agreed and granted. But I did mention I only liked a him a bit less. Still, I can easily see that he was dumb-ing down the story so that even the layperson could understand him. But fair enough.

[ogradyr01]

in fairness mate, it doesn't really change what he was saying. you seem like you're well educated on the origins of physics. i wouldnt say just because he has one incorrect fact thats a solid reason to start disliking sam

[waraker]

The Ancient Greeks dabbled in Natural Philosophy, which is not strictly physics in the form that we know it today. Sam Harris refers to modern physics which was 'invented' or greatly advanced by the Christian's Galileo and Newton.

[PixelatedProfanity]

Once again, examples of appeal to consequences.

[FutebolFanatico001]

Hey Sam Harris, sorry. I was a big fan of yours. Now I am a bit less so. "Though the Christians invented Physics". This sentence is the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a while. Talk about ignorance. Physics originated in Ancient Greece, over 2,500 years ago. If you're referring to Copernicus, he did not even have a shred of evidence for his claim, so that still doesn't really count. Even if it did, he hid his work for over 20 years for fearing "Christianity". Argument defeated.

[jdale1]

@makahar1 How about we don't know and you don't know either? How about we continue to make improvements of technologies of discovery and go from there? Would it shock you to know that the big bang has nothing to do with the creation of the universe? If we discovered the origin of the universe, will religion do what it has always done by going to the next concept science can't provide an explanation for, latch on to it and claim "god did"? Science doesn't know everything. Religion doesn't know a

[Rvat1]

That Hitlers crimes were bacause he was a cristian (he actually was not), and that Stalins crimes were because he was an athiest is just propaganda from both sides.