Sam Harris | |
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.jpg) Harris in 2016 | |
| Born | Samuel Benjamin Harris (1967-04-09)April 9, 1967 (age 58) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Education | |
| Subject | Neuroscience; philosophy; religion; spirituality; ethics; politics |
| Notable awards | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
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| Signature | |
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| 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 | |
Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, includingrationality, religion, ethics,free will,determinism,neuroscience, meditation,psychedelics,philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. Harris came to prominence for hiscriticism of religion, and he is known as one of the"Four Horsemen" of New Atheism, along withRichard Dawkins,Christopher Hitchens, andDaniel Dennett.
Harris’s first book,The End of Faith (2004), won thePEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction and remained onThe New York Times Best Seller list for 33 weeks. He has since written six additional books:Letter to a Christian Nation (2006);The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (2010); the essayLying (2011); the short bookFree Will (2012);Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (2014); and (with British writer Maajid Nawaz)Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue (2015). His work has been translated into over 20 languages.
Since September 2013, Harris has hosted theMaking Sense podcast (originally titledWaking Up). He also launched a meditation app called Waking Up, promotingsecularmindfulness practices. Harris has debated with many prominent figures on religion, includingReza Aslan,David Wolpe,Robert Wright,Rick Warren,William Lane Craig,Jordan Peterson andDeepak Chopra. Some critics have argued that Harris’s writings and public statements onIslam areIslamophobic; Harris and his supporters reject that characterization, arguing instead that the label is sometimes used to silence criticism.[1][2]
Samuel Benjamin Harris was born inLos Angeles, California, on April 9, 1967.[3][4] He is the son of the late actor Berkeley Harris, who appeared mainly inWestern films, and television writer and producerSusan Harris (née Spivak), who createdSoap andThe Golden Girls, among other series.[5][6] His father, born inNorth Carolina, came from aQuaker background, and his mother isJewish.[7] 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 anatheist.[8]
While his original major was in English, Harris became interested in philosophical questions while atStanford University after an experience withMDMA.[9][10][11] The experience interested him in the idea he might be able to achieve spiritual insights without the use of drugs.[12] Leaving Stanford in his second year, a quarter after his psychoactive experience, he visitedIndia andNepal, where he studiedmeditation with teachers ofBuddhist andHindu religions,[12][13] includingDilgo Khyentse.[SH 2] For a few weeks in the early 1990s, he was a volunteer guard in the security detail ofthe Dalai Lama.[14][13]
In 1997, after eleven years overseas, Harris returned to Stanford, completing aB.A. degree inphilosophy in 2000.[13][15][16] Harris began writing his first book,The End of Faith, immediately after theSeptember 11 attacks.[13]
He received aPh.D. incognitive neuroscience in 2009 from theUniversity of California, Los Angeles,[13][17][18] usingfunctional magnetic resonance imaging to conduct research into the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty.[13][18] His thesis was titledThe Moral Landscape: How Science Could Determine Human Values. His advisor wasMark S. Cohen.[19]
Harris's writing concernsphilosophy,neuroscience, andcriticism of religion. He came to prominence for his criticism of religion (Islam in particular) and he is described as one of theFour Horsemen of Atheism, along withRichard Dawkins,Christopher Hitchens, andDaniel Dennett.[20][21] He has written for publications such asThe New York Times, theLos Angeles Times,The Economist,The Times (of London),The Boston Globe, andThe Atlantic.[22] Five of Harris's books have beenNew York Times bestsellers, and his writing has been translated into over 20 languages.[22]The End of Faith (2004) remained onThe New York Times Best Seller list for 33 weeks.[23]
In September 2013, Harris began releasing theWaking Up podcast (since re-titledMaking Sense). Episodes vary in length but often last over two hours.[24] Releases do not follow a regular schedule.[25]
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 includedJordan Peterson,Daniel Dennett,Janna Levin,Peter Singer, andDavid Chalmers.[25][26][5][27]
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 asMind & Emotion,Free Will, andDoing Good; and more. Users of the app are introduced to several types of meditation, such asmindfulness meditation,vipassanā-style meditation,loving-kindness meditation, andDzogchen.[28]
In September 2020, Harris announced his commitment to donate at least 10% of Waking Up's profits to highlyeffective charities,[29] thus becoming the first company to sign theGiving What We Can pledge for companies.[30] The pledge was retroactive, taking into account the profits since the day the app launched two years previously.[29]
Harris is generally a critic of religion, and is considered a leading figure in theNew Atheist movement. Harris is particularly opposed to what he refers to asdogmatic 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.[5] Often invoking the non-violent nature ofJainism[31] to contrast withIslam,[32] Harris argues that the differences in religious doctrines and scriptures are the main indicators of a religion's value.[33][34]
Harris has often noted some positive aspects ofBuddhist thought, especially in relation to meditation, such asBuddhism'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".[34] In 2019, while discussing his bookWaking Up: Searching for Spirituality Without Religion, Harris noted that the West could learn a lot from the East about the traditions of meditation found inHinduism andBuddhism,[5] though he considers that meditation can be practiced without any traditional religious beliefs.[35]
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 ratherJainism,[32][31][34] which emerged in India around the same time as Buddhism, and has non-violence as its core doctrine.[34] 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.[34][31] 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.[34]
Harris has participated in numerous debates on religion including withRobert Wright,[36]Andrew Sullivan[37]David Wolpe,[38]Reza Aslan,[39] andJordan Peterson.[40] In 2010, Harris joinedMichael Shermer to debate withDeepak Chopra andJean Houston on the future of God in a debate hosted byABC News Nightline.[41]
Harris is critical of theChristian right in politics in the United States, blaming them for the political focus on "pseudo-problems like gay marriage".[42] He has described Christian philosophical arguments for the existence of God such as theLeap of faith andPascal's wager which were developed byBlaise Pascal andSøren Kierkegaard as "epistemologicalPonzi scheme".[43] He is also critical ofliberal Christianity – as represented, for instance, by the theology ofPaul 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.[42]
Harris is highly critical of theCatholic Church, saying that "The Catholic Church is more concerned about preventing contraception than preventing child rape".[32] In May 2010, Harris along withRichard Dawkins,Christopher Hitchens, and Harris's foundation Project Reason called for the end the of theVatican's “diplomatic immunity" citing the numerous allegations of sexual abuse against the Catholic Church and it's tolerance of such abuse.[44]
In April 2007, Harris debated with evangelical pastorRick Warren forNewsweek magazine.[45] Harris debated with Christian philosopherWilliam Lane Craig in April 2011 on whether there can be anobjectivemorality without God.[46]
In 2006, Harris describedIslam as "all fringe and no center",[SH 4] and wrote inThe End of Faith that "the doctrine of Islam ... represents a unique danger to all of us", arguing that thewar on terror is really a war against Islam.[47] 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 theAmish and theJains and others are on another end, and there are real differences here that we have to take seriously."[48] 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."[33] In 2015 Harris and secular Islamic activistMaajid Nawaz cowroteIslam and the Future of Tolerance.[49] In this book, Harris argues that the wordIslamophobia is a "pernicious meme", a label which prevents discussion about the threat of Islam.[47] Harris has been described in 2020 by Jonathan Matusitz, Associate Professor at theUniversity of Central Florida, as "a champion of thecounter-jihad left".[50]
Harris opposedExecutive 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 ofIslamism".[51]
Harris has been accused ofIslamophobia by linguist and political commentatorNoam Chomsky.[52] 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.[53] In a 2016 interview withAl Jazeera English'sUpFront, Chomsky further criticized Harris, saying he "specializes in hysterical, slanderous charges against people he doesn't like".[52] Other writers and political commentators includingGlenn Greenwald,[54]Sam Seder,[55]Reza Aslan,[56]Chris Hedges, andNathan J. Robinson have also accused Harris of Islamophobia and/or bigotry.[57][58][59][60] Hedges and Robinson have also criticized Harris for discussing in an excerpt fromThe 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 injihad andmartyrdom.[61][62][63]
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.[33] He has also criticized the validity of the term "Islamophobia".[64] "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",[65] he wrote following a disagreement with actorBen Affleck in October 2014 on the showReal Time with Bill Maher. Affleck had described Harris's and hostBill Maher's views on Muslims as "gross" and "racist", and Harris's statement that "Islam is themother lode of bad ideas" as an "ugly thing to say". Affleck also compared Harris's and Maher's rhetoric to that of people who useantisemitic canards or define African-Americans in terms of intraracial crime.[66] Severalconservative American media pundits in turn criticized Affleck and praised Harris and Maher for broaching the topic, saying that discussing it had become taboo.[67]
Harris's dialogue on Islam withMaajid Nawaz received a combination of positive reviews[68][69][70] and mixed reviews.[71][72]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".[72]
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",[12] 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 betweenspirituality andrationality, favoring a middle path that preserves spirituality and science but does not involve religion.[73] He writes that spirituality should be understood in light of scientific disciplines likeneuroscience andpsychology.[73] 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.[73] His conception of spirituality does not involve a belief in any god.[74]
InWaking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion (2014), Harris describes his experience withDzogchen, aTibetan Buddhist meditation practice, and recommends it to his readers.[73] 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 ofconsciousness, mirroring core Buddhist beliefs.[73][75] This process of realization, he argues, is based on experience and is not contingent onfaith.[73][5]
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
Harris considers that thewell-being of conscious creatures forms the basis of morality. InThe Moral Landscape, he argues that science can in principle answer moral questions and help maximize well-being.[32]
Harris also criticizescultural andmoral relativism, arguing that it prevents people from making objective moral judgments about practices that clearly harm human well-being, such asfemale 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.[32]
Harris says that the idea offree will "cannot be mapped on to any conceivable reality" and is incoherent.[76] Harris writes inFree Will that neuroscience "reveals you to be a biochemical puppet".[77]
PhilosopherDaniel Dennett argued that Harris's bookFree Will successfully refuted the common understanding of free will, but that he failed to respond adequately to thecompatibilist 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."[78]
Harris is particularly concerned withexistential risks from artificial general intelligence, a topic he has discussed in depth in several episodes of his podcast.[79][SH 6][SH 7][80][81] In a 2016TED talk, he argued that it will be a major threat in the future, and criticized the lack of human interest on the subject.[82] He said thatartificial 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.[82] He described makingartificial superintelligence safe as "one of the greatest challenges our species will ever face", indicating that it would warrant immediate consideration.[82]
Harris describes himself as a liberal, even though he criticizes some aspects of both right and left. He is a registeredDemocrat[83] and has never votedRepublican in presidential elections.[25] He supportssame-sex marriage anddecriminalizing drugs.[84]
Harris frequently criticizedGeorge W. Bush over his support forintelligent design and his coziness withChristianity.[85][86]
In an op-ed for theLos Angeles Times in 2006, Harris said that he supported most of the criticism against theBush administration'swar 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 byIslamic fundamentalism.[84] Harris criticized the Bush administration for its use of torture atAbu Ghraib andGuantánamo Bay, but also argued that there can be a rational case for torture in rare circumstances.[87][88]
Harris opposes religious claims to Israel's right to exist as aJewish 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][89]
Harris has criticized bothIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) andHamas for committing war crimes in theIsraeli–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][89] He names these as reasons that Israel has a right to defend itself against Hamas.[SH 9][89]
During theGaza war that began in October 2023, Harris expressed support for Israel and rejected arguments that Israel provoked Hamas by buildingIsraeli settlements in the West Bank, arguing that Gaza had not been occupied since 2005. He also condemned theOctober 7 attacks, 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 ...."[90] 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 againstBenjamin Netanyahu and the influence of religious extremists on the Israeli government.[91]
In June 2025, Harris supportedOperation Midnight Hammer, which authorized military strikes againstIran nuclear facilities amid the ongoingIran–Israel war.[92]
In the2008 United States presidential election, he supported the candidacy ofBarack Obama and opposed RepublicanJohn McCain's candidacy.[SH 11][93] During the2016 United States presidential election, Harris supportedHillary Clinton in the Democratic Party presidential primaries againstBernie Sanders,[94] and despite calling her "a terribly flawed candidate for the presidency", he favored her in the general election and came out strongly in opposition toDonald Trump's candidacy.[SH 12][26] Harris has criticized Trump for lying, stating in 2018 that Trump "has assaulted truth more than anyone in human history".[26]
In the2020 United States presidential election, Harris supportedAndrew Yang in the Democratic primaries.[95] Harris also introduced Yang to podcasterJoe Rogan.[96] After the 2020 election, he said that he did not care what was onHunter Biden'slaptop, telling theTriggernometry podcast that "Hunter Biden literally could have had the corpses of children in his basement – I would not have cared",[97] 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 the2024 United States presidential election, Harris endorsedKamala Harris. Just a few days before the elections, he joined in a debate on theHonestly podcast where he argued in favor of supporting Kamala Harris, whileBen Shapiro presented the case forDonald Trump.[98] After Kamala Harris lost the election, he blamed Democrats for their embrace ofidentity politics,gender identity,[99] and theBiden administration for poor handling ofimmigration at the southern border.[100]
Harris supports raising taxes on the wealthy and reducing government spending, and has criticized billionaires likeBill Gates andWarren 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.[101][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]
Harris owns guns and wrote in 2015 that he understood people's hostility towardsgun culture in the United States and the political influence of theNational 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.[102][SH 14]
Harris has stated that he disagrees with proposals by liberals and gun control advocates for restricting guns, such as theassault 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]
During theCOVID-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.[103] Harris has feuded withBret Weinstein over his views on COVID-19.[104] In 2023, he said that if COVID-19 had killed more children, there would be no patience for vaccine skepticism.[105]
In March 2023, he hostedMatt Ridley andAlina Chan on his podcast to discuss theorigins of COVID-19 and the potential that theCOVID-19 virus was made in a lab.[SH 15][106]
Harris has been described, alongside others such asJoe Rogan,Bret Weinstein, andJordan Peterson, as a member of theintellectual dark web, a group that opposes political correctness and identity politics.[107]New York Times book reviewerBari 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."[26]
In November 2020, Harris stated that he does not identify as a part of that group.[108][109] In 2021 Harris stated that he had "turn[ed] in [his] imaginary membership card to this imaginary organization".[110] In 2023 during an interview withThe Daily Beast, Harris explained that he had broken away from the intellectual dark web due to disagreements with Bret Weinstein, andMaajid Nawaz's "obsession" with COVID-19 conspiracy theories and criticism of COVID-19 policies. He also described becoming disenchanted withDave 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".[111]
Hatewatch staff at theSouthern 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 thealt-right".[112] Bari Weiss wrote that the SPLC had misrepresented Harris's views.[26]
Harris's first two books, in which he lays out his criticisms of religion, received negative reviews from Christian scholars.[42][113][114] From secular sources, the books received a mixture of negative reviews[115][116][117] and positive reviews.[118][119][120][121] In his review ofThe End of Faith, American historianAlexander Saxton criticized what he called Harris's "vitriolic andselective 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".[115] By contrast,Stephanie Merritt wrote of the same book that Harris's "central argument inThe 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".[118] Harris's first book,The End of Faith (2004), won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction.[122]
Harris's next two books, which discuss philosophical issues relating to ethics and free will, received several negative academic reviews.[123][124][125][126][127][128] In his review ofThe moral Landscape, neuroscientistKenan 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?".[126] On the other hand,The moral Landscape received a largely-positive review from psychologists James Diller and Andrew Nuzzolilli.[129] 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".[130]
Harris's book on spirituality and meditation received mainly positive reviews[131][132][73][75] as well as some mixed reviews.[133][74] It was praised byFrank 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."[131]
In April 2017, Harris hosted the social scientistCharles Murray on his podcast, discussing topics including theheritability of IQ andrace and intelligence.[134] Harris stated the invitation was out of indignation at a violent protest against Murray atMiddlebury 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 fromVox[27][135] andSlate.[136] In theVox article, scientists, includingEric Turkheimer,Kathryn Paige Harden, andRichard E. Nisbett, accused Harris of participating in "pseudoscientific racialist speculation" and peddling "junk science". Harris and Murray were defended by commentatorsAndrew Sullivan[137] andKyle Smith.[138] Harris andVox editor-at-largeEzra Klein later discussed the affair in a podcast interview in which Klein accused Harris of "thinking tribally" and Harris accused theVox article of leading people to think he was racist.[139][140]
In 2018,Robert Wright, a visiting professor of science and religion atUnion Theological Seminary, published an article inWired criticizing Harris, whom he described as "annoying" and "deluded". Wright wrote that Harris, despite claiming to be a champion of rationality, ignored his owncognitive biases and engaged in faulty and inconsistent arguments in his bookThe 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 innatural selection and impact everyone, but that they can be mitigated when acknowledged.[140]
The UKBusiness Insider included Harris's podcast in their list of "8 podcasts that will change how you think about human behavior" in 2017,[141] andPC Magazine included it in their list of "The Best Podcasts of 2018".[142] In January 2020, Max Sanderson included Harris's podcast as a "Producer pick" in a "podcasts of the week" section forThe Guardian.[24] TheWaking Up podcast won the 2017Webby Award for "People's Voice" in the category "Science & Education" under "Podcasts & Digital Audio".[143]
Harris was included on a list of the "100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People 2019" in theWatkins Review, a publication ofWatkins Books, a London esoterica bookshop.[144]
In 2004, Harris marriedAnnaka Harris (née Gorton), an author and editor of nonfiction and scientific books, after engaging in a common interest about the nature of consciousness.[145] They have two daughters[146][SH 17] and live inLos Angeles.[147]
In September 2020, Harris became a member ofGiving What We Can, aneffective 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.[30][29]
Harris practicesBrazilian jiu-jitsu.[148][149]
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 ...
I have been, traditionally, a liberal. I have never voted republican ... certainly not for president.
Jainism is a religion of peace
Jainism is the best example that I know of [a peaceful religion]. ... Nonviolence is its core doctrine
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)I'm a registered Democrat
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