with gratitude: Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue about Belief

Sam Harris speaks to "religious liberals" in January of 2005. He informs his audience that "some of you will undoubtedly get offended", and he encourages them to notice the process - the dynamics of it. "If I say something and the walls start to go up in you I want you to remember just what it was."

Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 1 of 11)

"The problem I want to talk to you about tonight is the problem of belief. What does it mean to believe? We use this word all the time, and I think behind it lurk some really extraordinary taboos and confusions. What I want to argue tonight is that how we talk about belief- how we fail to criticize or criticize the beliefs of others, has more importance to us personally, more consequence to us personally and to civilization than perhaps anything else that is in our power to influence. "

"It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization."

Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 2 of 11)

"What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives."

"What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons."

"The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence."

"We rely on faith only in the context of claims for which there is no sufficient sensory or logical evidence."

Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 3 of 11)

"When the stakes are this high- when calling God by the right name can make the difference between eternal happiness and eternal suffering, it is impossible to respect the beliefs of others who don't believe as you do."

Sam Harris Speaks at University Synagogue (Part 4 of 11)

"If faith is what you have to go on, if faith is the link between your beliefs and the world at large, your beliefs are very likely to be wrong. Beliefs can be right or wrong. If you believe you can fly, that belief is only true if indeed you can fly. Somebody who thinks he can fly, and is wrong about it, will eventually discover there's a problem with his view of the world."

"Faith does not offer a strong link between our beliefs and actual states of the world."

"We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper."

"The only thing that guarantees an open-ended collaboration among human beings, the only thing that guarantees that this project is truly open-ended, is a willingness to have our beliefs and behaviors modified by the power of conversation."