Scott Klarr Jr

Great quotes: Sam Harris, Sanity in numbers 2004

Sam Harris is an atheist author and philosopher. He has written a couple books regarding religion from an atheistic and objective perspective. The following quote is from The End Of Faith about how people who have delusions by themselves are considered insane, but if many people share the same delusion, its religion.

We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common we call them 'religious'; otherwise, they are likely to be called 'mad', 'psychotic' or 'delusional' . . . Clearly there is sanity in numbers. And yet, it is merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your thoughts, while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bed- room window. And so, while religious people are not generally mad, their core beliefs absolutely are.