Sam Harris

Did Christianity Make the World A Better Place?

Is Christianity a good or bad influence on society? Did Christianity inspire science, liberty, equality, morality and charity, or was it actually an obstacle to cultural progress? The late Christopher Hitchens said that religion poisons everything. Alvin Schmidt, among others, credit Christianity with the birth and growth of diplomacy, democracy, the sovereignty of the individual, and more. In the quest for truth, goodness can be a powerful witness.

Depression, Suicide and the Secret to Happiness

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the US, and the trends are on the rise. There seems to be a question about whether or not life is worth living that very few are talking about. On October 2nd, 2018, The Thinking Atheist published an episode titled “A Secular Perspective on Suicide,” which, in our estimation, offered little hope. But does Christianity offer a higher calling for suicidal people, or is it actually a contributing cause of their anguish? Is life worth the effort it takes to endure the pain? Is there any hope for people struggling with severe depression or suicidal ideation, or are cliches and slogans the best we can offer? Perhaps happiness is better obtained as an accidental byproduct rather than the chief end of a well lived life.

Tolstoy: Free Will, History and Human Motivation (4/4)

Can human beings determine their own destiny, or are we the inevitable product of our environment and nature? Sam Harris is convinced that free will is an illusion. After all, if the world is just matter and motion, how could there be free will? Not everyone agrees with Harris, however, and many thinkers see free will as a self-evident axiom on which morality is based. The question of free will is one that every serious thinker must consider, and for Tolstoy, this is an essential prerequisite for the question of human motivation and therefore the cause and direction of history.