We are no more free to believe whatever we want about God than we are free to adopt unjustified beliefs about science or history, or free to mean whatever we want when using words like 'poison' or 'north' or 'zero.'[2]
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- We cannot choose beliefs freely without regard for evidence, similar to words.
- In plain terms
- Beliefs require evidence like language.
- What can you take from it?
- Demand evidence for beliefs.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can you change a belief without evidence?
Another view
Some beliefs are subjective preferences.
More from Sam Harris
To believe that God exists is to believe that I stand in some relation to his existence such that his existence is itself the reason for my belief.[2]
Permalink to quote #12 Where we have reasons for what we believe, we have no need of faith; where we have no reasons, we have lost both our connection to the world and to one another…
Permalink to quote #14 Beliefs are scarcely more private than actions are, for every belief is a fount of action in potentia.[2]
Permalink to quote #11
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