Sam Harris: Fearless Among Peers 

"Rather than learning to grieve, we learn that death doesn't exist." That was an excellent statement.

Everyone lauds Sam for his intellect. Honestly, I think his greatest virtue and strength is his inexhaustible patience. He is unflappable.

Sam Harris is the most articulate speaker I have ever heard. I could listen to him for hours speaking on anything.

Sam Harris is one of the world's best thinkers. I could listen to this guy all day.

I love Mr H's delivery - so calm, measured, clear.

Harris is remorselessly logical and clear in his thinking and speech. Every word making up a sentence is well placed and conveys exactly what he wants to say. There is no room in his answers to questions for ambiguity. Some folk see careful and thoughtfully expressed ideas as a threat. Fact is not a threat. Fear is a threat. Fear of facts you don't like does not mean you make up new facts that you do like. That is how religion works. Religious folk hate the idea of dying and rotting in the ground so they make up stories about what happens after death. Then they wonder why atheists mock them. Learn to face the truth. It makes life even more valuable and purposeful. Time is limited so live every minute. Why fear death when what we really fear is how we die. Learn to live well. Keep as healthy as practicable and one finds peace. As Mark Twain said I don't fear death. I wasn't around for thousands of years before my birth and it didn't cause me any problem whatsoever.

Why are there so few people at this event? I would bareknuckle fight Leonidas from 300 to be in a room with 5 of the most intellectual minds on the planet.. That was the best Sam Harris I've seen. He was on his A+ game. Brilliant

Most people 'listen' with the intent to reply rather than understand. Notice how all of Sam's replies are well thought out and are full of understanding. Everyone just tries to tear him down.

Sam's patience is his greatest strength

Sam Harris has an impeccable vocabulary.

God damn Sam Harris is a fucking logic machine, loved every minute of this.

This might be my favorite Sam Harris video. Fellow intellectuals Neil Tyson and Lawrence Krauss both join in on the discussion. Can we please just make this our congress?

Sam Harris is the epitome of "if you don't explain it, I can't understand it; if you can't explain it, *you* don't understand it." He exemplifies the idea that there is no subject on which you cannot be articulate and open and rational. I admire his hyperarticulation and strive to be as capable of communicating intelligently and thought-provokingly on these subjects. LOL I think I'm close!

Sam Harris for president!

When I was reading Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku (a theoretical physics book), I found myself having to do all kinds of mental gymnastics to keep it all consistent with my faith. Then I asked myself, why was I afraid of asking "that one question". When I built up the courage to truly and honestly question if religion was real, the answer seemed obvious.

Sam is the voice of reason in today's madness.

Hitch passed the torch to this man

Wow! What a great lecture series. Thank you for bringing this to my attention and linking it in the description box. I just chewed through the first three sessions in short order and look forward to hearing the rest.

As always Sam Harris and his friends clearly , logically and articulately clarify and frame the real discussion

Rival interpretations of the plays of Shakespeare. His analogies are brilliant!

Red haired women analogy is superb!!

The voice of reason

"Sam Harris is a brilliant man.." C. Hitchens

Thank you for keeping this channel going. It means so much to so many people.

This is an amazing speech. I hope that Sam is still sharing his ideas for many years to come.

Wow. What an amazing collection of minds in one room.

Sam Harris nailed it......alws love to listen him.......💞

This is such an excellent discussion. The second half of this video is fantastic.

Good lord I love this talk. This is part of the reason Harris has mostly moved on from religious critique across the board. There is literally nothing more to say regarding what's wrong with deference to religion that he hasn't already made abundantly clear.

We need politicians that smart and logical.

Krauss! Fellow Atheists still questioning each other and their views. I love intelligent people speaking to one another.

Sam Harris is amazing! So articulate with such a wide repitoire and knowledge base. One of the greatest JADI alive! I am honoured to be in the same order with such fervent men & women! May the force be with you Master Harris Always!

So very true, well said Sam, How could any fool argue with such rationalism and realism you set forth? Thank you Sam for educating us all,

Sam is one if three athiests that woke me up out if Christianity Hitchens n Dawkins the other two.

I could listen to Sam endlessly. He is a truely great man

Including the answers to his questions or the statements eliciting his responses would have greatly increased the value of this video.

Sam Harris is the master of analogies. His comparisons always nail the point so well.

Sam Harris is a genius!

Thanks for posting this video! Its amazing

thank you so much for having shared this

Sam Harris has the ability to keep a level head and eloquently respond off the top of his head. He is educated, intelligent and entertaining to listen to. He would be the epitome of what a professor should be. The fact that he is a neuroscientist and understands the brain and many elements of what may constitute consciousness augments his discourse when discussing religion. One solution to the world would be to utilize the power of psychedelics which has the potential to strip everyone of their allegiance to their egos especially in regards to their religion, which is determined as Richard Dawkins states to one´s geographical birthplace and parents´affiliation. People drinking the Amazonian tea, ayahuasca for example would not be allowed because Christian religion has deemed this practice of the Amazonian Indians a thing of the devil - the Christian church is afraid of the mind being expanded via psychedelics, which would most likely result in shedding of one´s religion.

Holy f... I’ve never seen Sam this passionate....this must be the early days...

EXACTLY!!! Thank you for seeing that finally. I feel like you really had a break through here, congratulations!

"It isn't true that people can't be talked out of their beliefs!" He is absolutely right. it's scary and uncomfortable but it can be done.

Damn I love Sam Harris. I think he's done an excellent job picking up where Hitchens left off. I was raised in a somewhat lax Christian environment. I wasn't forced to go to church, but I remember other adults scaring the shit out of me with the idea of hell, and especially... successfully getting me to believe that even a thought questioning god could lead to such a place. Again, I was quite young, but as I got older I started questioning and that led to doubt. I ignored atheism at first because the average atheist was obnoxious and condescending. They need to learn calling people idiots and declaring intellectual superiority is NOT the way to change someone's mind. But Hitchens was the 1st one who got me completely on board. He has so much style and wit, and logic... that it was impossible to ignore. Sam's own unique style, the posterboy (man) for logic and reason, has solidified this. I feel lucky to have found him. I live in the south, so introducing my friends and neighbors to Sam will not be an easy task, but I will try. Not because of my desire to spread atheism, but because of their constant posts of relying on Jesus to cure them of their own misery which is clearly not working at all from what I see. Wish me luck. I do need to say that most southerners are more reasonable than you think. It seems to me to be more generational than geographical. I'll find out soon enough. Also, clearly I need to work on articulating these ideas at least half or even a quarter (lol) as well as Harris does. That may take awhile.

this is mind-porn.

Dawkins, Tyson, Harris all in one room!!? that is too much awesomeness!

Thank you for making Sam's point clear to those who read this post.

My best answer to "Prove to me that God doesn't exist". It's impossible to prove that fictional characters do not exist for the same reason it's impossible to prove that they actually exist. Their stories are of the imagination...apart from reality. And the fact that it's impossible to prove that there is no God...or to prove that he exists...just supports the idea that they only appear in stories, never in real life. These beings are invented, never discovered.

Damn, Sam was under attack and he handled himself brilliantly.

I'd like to second what yashaouchan said - thanks for keeping the channel going, particularly because it keeps alive the memory of an enormous personality, a man whose simple presence on earth and in modern society was in itself enough to make the world, at least to me, a more reassuring place. I didn't agree with absolutely everything Hitch said, it'd be boring if I did, but he was a guy who lived about as close an approximation of the 'good life' as I've seen. Cheers.

oh so somebody DID do it.. went ahead and collected all Sam's bits from that convention. Thank you so much :-)

Sam Harris even makes other public intellectuals sound inarticulate

i was very pleased to scroll down and not find any ben stiller jokes.

Too much awesome people in this room

The link to the whole session is in the description.

Sam never loses his cool. Definitely a meditator.

@Frappa Chino I think the point Harris makes is that, in practice, Budhism operates like an intellectual exercise and can maintain a rational discourse, despite whatever the contents and practices of its dogma may be. Religions like Islam, Christianity and Judaism can't claim the same, for all the reasons he presents like the martyrdom and stem cell research.

ill look for it and will surely come across it again, i remember one was at the beginning of an hour + speech

WOW. The first argument / speech / dialogue / scene from Sam was sublime 38:50 is the funniest thing in this video

Took me the entire video but I finally discovered the problem, Sam is so far more intelligent than anyone in the room none of them can handle it.

The thing about Sam Harris is, Sam Harris is smarter than you. But we can partake in his intelligence and research and learn a thing or three

When Sam talked about ''what you believe really matters'' and made the examples about buddhism and zhen and christianity and ''life starts at the moment of contraception'' really put my thoughtweels to spin. I began imagining a hundred different doctrines over every religion I know that could change the practices completely.

I’m glad I’m not in the conversation. These guys are effing smart!

Krauss is so quick to witch hunt. Harris remained constrained, thoughtful, and bizarrely precise with his position.

THIS world is not irrational,as this gent sitting next to SAM has said ,i read Quran from the age of 7 to 15/16 many many times(i could nearly recite half of it by heart),when i went to college and learnt the reality of nature,my believes in religion/Allah and Mohammed went with a puff of smoke,iwas fully conditioned in islam from 7 yrs to 15/16 years of age,only education rescued me from these ALLAHS,and their funny stories and all the other raz-ma-tazs.i think any body with a little common sense +some scientific education can come out of these tooth fairy faiths.i am now 63 yrs of age.my children are same as me.the gist of this story is that if one ordinary pakistani born can live a life FREE OF THIS MR ALLAH,ALL OTHERS CAN ALSO ,IF THEY TRY.

I'm gratified you enjoyed our exchange of ideas. I guess I have some perspective since I was once a devout Christian. I know how it feels to tackle issues in life as rational and faithful person. However, at the end my rationality couldn't co-exist with my faith, one had to go or I would find no peace. It wasn't easy either. But in the end that's all that matters. We all try to do right by ourselves and each other the best we can. The least we could do is not make assumptions easy on ourselves.

I appreciate Sam Harris' views as they are also aligned with how I view things. I come from a very different background and yet have journeyed my way to similar thoughts as he. Thanks for sharing!

His words are delicious.

"They're coming from ... the hammer blows of modernity that make certain religious doctrine untenable"... aside from the jokes any fourteen year old could make from that quote, it's a fairly powerful statement on how religion has evolved, particularly in the west.

Q: does anyone know where I can find the part of this vid that was edited out (I'm not condemning that choice - this is a video about what Mr. Harris says after all) But I would like to know exactly what he is responding to at 23:23

Sam Harris Please Teach and Stay the way you are 💜💜💜

The Golden Rule doesn't work with masochists. A Golden Shower goes down well with them but the Golden Rule isn't such a good idea.

Because the whole conference was I think around 12 hours spread over 3 days.

P.S I have listened to many Mckenna and Hancock talks here on youtube and I find them very interesting/enjoyable to listen to and I respect a lot of their theories and ideas.

Yes, you are correct.

Sam's vocabulary is crazy!

The best forty minutes on youtube . Only one person could have had it better : Ultra Great Hitchens .

is the full video of this available somewhere? i'd love to hear what NDT and richard dawkins' had to say in this discussion as well.

There are few who can off the cuff express themselves and complex ideas as well as Mr. Harris.

- Everything is a part of the One. - Things have form. - Therefore, the One cannot be formless.

1:18 has to be one of the best analogies I've heard concerning this topic. This conference seems to have been awesome... at least it should have been, judging by the attendants :-)

right on!

Yes, thank God for Sam Harris.

It would still be nice to have the full discussion, both sides...does anyone know where I can find the unedited version?

I could listen to Sam Harris all day long.

[the moment I had a moment of clarity 3:50] I almost cried afters this. You have a video to remember your "moment of clarity". Mine was in a forum on the Internet long time ago, some guy talking about the belief in afterlife, but I can´t remember exactly what he wrote or where it is. In an instant you get that hit in your brain, your entire worldview collapses and you reborn a complete different person, knowing that your life and the way you look to the universe will never be the same again.

Hey, another question. When you say chance, are you referring to the philosophical concept of indeterminism or the mathematical concept of probability?

Yeah! love him. Count me in😊

could you get the rerst in parts? id really like to see it

I love the RU-vid name! Way to support free expression.

is there a full version of this debate?

It's actually for sale. Link in the desc.

Yes, it was interesting. Thanks

Where can I find the entire video?

best thing about this video? that it let's you know the title of a video that gives you A WHOLE HOUR MORE OF THIS ! :D :b

i agree, or i'd rather believe, in the very least, of many of your points! however, jimi does make a good point in saying that there is a lack of evidence in some of the claims. your defense seems to be that in order to understand things such as other dimensions, one must experience them oneself directly. i don't have access to any drugs, and i had no luck with meditation (it just made me calm). what would you recommend me to do to have those spiritual experiences you mentioned?

Go to The Science Network website. It's all archived there under the "Beyond Belief" series. This is from the 2006 session IIRC.

how in the hell have i missed this? I've watched hours upon hours of Harris' stuff, canned talks, debates, the joe rogan interview (which i couldn't finish due to Rogan being an unrivaled assclown) even another talk he did for TSN, but oh man... there were some gems in this. His 2-front defense around 29:00~ against a naive Tyson and a self-interested Atran was magical. Harris truly is on another level in how his brain works. Unparallelled.

I've been called that too! You're in good company.