According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency.
Interpretation
The quote warns about the dangers of apocalyptic beliefs influencing governance and societal stability.
Sam Harris's quote highlights the potential peril of widespread apocalyptic beliefs, particularly those held by influential figures in government. He expresses concern that if a significant portion of the population, including decision-makers, genuinely believes that the world is on the brink of an end that will be glorious, it could lead to harmful policies and actions that reflect those beliefs. This alarm raises ethical and intellectual concerns about how such ideologies could shape societal direction and governance.
In practice
In a discussion on the influence of religion on politics, this quote can highlight the risks of apocalyptic ideologies.
Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person's thoughts.
What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.
The core of science is not a mathematical modeling--it is intellectual honesty. It is a willingness to have our certainties about the world constrained by good evidence and good argument.
It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.
It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization.
It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.
The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.
When lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday, cash me out.
It is strange. I see all the privileges and greatness of the future. It already looks grand, beautiful. Tell them I went lovingly, trustfully, peacefully.
and never really thought I'd amount to anything. It was precisely what I wanted the whole world to think; then I could sneak in, if that's what they wanted, and sneak out again, which I did.
Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.
To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death of one's own free choice, death at the proper time, with a clear head and with joyfulness, consummated in the midst of children and witnesses: so that an actual leave-taking is possible while he who is leaving is still there.
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