Sam Harris

Sam Harris

Sam Harris is an American author and atheist. Sam Harris is one of the founders of the New Atheism movement. Dr. Harris received a Ph.D. in neuroscience from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and is also a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University. He wrote two controversial, but New York Times best seller books, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. He has written essays such as "Science must destroy religion".

Sam Harris and charges of misogny

See also: Atheism and women and Atheism and sexism

Like his fellow new atheist Richard Dawkins, Harris has raised the ire of feminists.

In 2014, Harris said that atheist activism lacks an “estrogen vibe” and was “to some degree intrinsically male”.

On October 3, 2014, Salon magazine published an online article titled, Atheism’s shocking woman problem: What’s behind the misogyny of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris? On September 20 2014, the feminist blogger Libby Anne wrote an article entitled Is Sam Harris Sexist? Atheist Sam Fincke wrote a piece entitled On Sam Harris’s Reply to Feminist Critics.

In his defense, Harris published an article on his website titled, “I’m Not the Sexist Pig You’re Looking For”

Charges of Islamophobia

See also: Atheism vs. Islam

The new atheists Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens have received multiple accusations of engaging in Islamophobic behavior. On the other hand, defenders of atheist criticisms of Islam/Muslims indicated that New Atheists should be able to criticize Islam without being accused of Islamophobia.

On June 21, 2014 Harris published an article on his website entitled Response to Critics which was a response to his critics who accuse him of Islamophobia.

Killing people for thought crimes and Harris' book The End of Faith

In his book The End of Faith, Harris wrote: “Some beliefs are so dangerous that it may be ethical to kill people for believing them”. Harris was criticized by Christian apologist Victor Reppert and others for his promotion of the idea that killing people for thought crimes is morally acceptable.

Theodore Beale

Theodore Beale wrote in response to Harris defending his statement:

“

whining about the fact that people are still actively holding him accountable for the clear and obvious meaning of his written words, and he is still attempting to shade the truth while doing so. "I know one thing to a moral certainty, however: Both Greenwald and Aslan know that those words do not mean what they appear to mean. Given the amount of correspondence we’ve had on these topics, and given that I have repeatedly bored audiences by clarifying that statement (in response to this kind of treatment), the chance that either writer thinks he is exposing the truth about my views—or that I’m really a “genocidal fascist maniac”—is zero. Aslan and Greenwald—a famous “scholar” and a famous “journalist”—are engaged in a campaign of pure defamation. They are consciously misleading their readers and increasing my security concerns in the process." What a load of utter codswollop. Sam Harris clearly and openly and unmistakably wrote that it MAY be ethical to kill people for believing dangerous beliefs. Not for doing anything, not for harming anyone, but for simply BELIEVING CERTAIN BELIEFS. His repeated "clarifications" and obfuscations don't change that established fact and he has never recanted his statement. Nor, I note, has he ever come right out and declared specifically WHAT beliefs are so dangerous that it is ethical to kill people for nothing more than holding them.

”

Harris claims the label atheist is right next to child molester as a designation

see also: Atheism, pederasty and NAMBLA and Views on Atheists

Dr. Sam Harris is a founder of the New Atheism movement. He is quite aware of the stigma surrounding atheism and has even advocated that atheists no longer call themselves atheists. In fact, Dr. Harris has said concerning the label of atheist, "It's right next to child molester as a designation."

Gender and racial demographics of Sam Harris' audience

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Studies and web traffic data appear to indicate that women in the Western World tend to be more religious than men. See: Atheism and women

See also: Western atheism and race and Atheism and women and Gender and racial demographics of Sam Harris' audience

According to the web traffic tracking company Quantcast, white males appear to be the group of individuals who are most receptive to Richard Dawkins'. Survey data and website tracking data of prominent atheists' websites indicate that in the Western World, atheism is significantly less appealing to women. According to the web traffic company Alexa, Harris receives the majority of his web traffic from North America and European countries.

In 2015, BloombergView reported concerning the United States:

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According to a much-discussed 2012 report from the Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life, only 3 percent of U.S. atheists and agnostics are black, 6 percent are Hispanic, and 4 percent are Asian. Some 82 percent are white. (The relevant figures for the population at large at the time of the survey were 66 percent white, 11 percent black, 15 percent Hispanic, 5 percent Asian.) ...Craig Keener, in his huge review of claims of miracles in a wide variety of cultures, concludes that routine rejection of the possibility of the supernatural represents an impulse that is deeply Eurocentric.

”

At the same time, due to immigration, Europe is expected to become more desecularized in the 21st century (See also: Global atheism and Atheist population).

These findings and Harris'/Dawkins' above cited problems with feminists, suggest that New Atheism movement is significant more appealing to white males. See also: Western atheism and race and Atheism and women

Project Reason

See also: Project Reason

An article published by an advocate of the Question evolution! campaign entitled Sam Harris, Project Reason failed quotes Sam Harris's Project Reason website thusly in terms of a description and aims of the project:

“

Project Reason is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. The foundation draws on the talents of prominent and creative thinkers in a wide range of disciplines to encourage critical thinking and erode the influence of dogmatism, superstition, and bigotry in our world. One immediate need is to build an archive of the best secular resources on the Internet. Registered users can submit their favorite articles, videos, interviews, etc."

”

In addition, the article Sam Harris, Project Reason failed offers this web traffic graph from the web traffic tracking company Alexa:

An Alexa web traffic tracking graph for Project Reason taken from the article Sam Harris, Project Reason failed

An updated Alexa web traffic tracking graph on January 31, 2014:

A January 31, 2014 Alexa web traffic tracking graph for the website Project Reason

Also, the article Sam Harris, Project Reason failed adds:

“

...it is extremely hard to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. No doubt the "best" secular material on the internet is extremely poor in quality. In addition, material which promotes atheism is very much like evolutionary pseudoscience material in that it is extremely dull, stale and boring. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been an atheism revival! See: How stale and boring is evolutionary indoctrination? Is the public fooled or are they suspicious? What is the trend? Questions for Sam Harris and his anemic fan base Sam, what happened? By the way, what are your thoughts about global atheism shrinking? I do hope you know that this is expected to affect Western World atheism. The Birbeck, University of London professor Eric Kaufmann declared to a secular audience in a lecture titled Shall the religious inherit the earth: "The trends that are happening worldwide inevitably in an age of globalization are going to affect us."

”

According to website traffic tracking company Alexa, as of July 3, 2015, Project Reason is the 774,804 most popular website on the internet and it recently dropped 48,642 places in terms of its ranking.

See also

• Where was Sam Harris when the New Atheists needed him? - satire
• Richard Dawkins and women

External Links

• Letter to a Maladjusted Misotheist
• Sam Harrris by True Free Thinker