Why is Sam Harris controversial?

Answer 1

Sam Harris is an outspoken atheist. Some quarters of society find Atheism itself controversial.

But controversy really means getting people to talk about issues. One could regard the Pope as controversial, for his stance of commanding HIV-positive people to not use condoms with their wives/husbands, regardless of how they acquired the disease or their reasons for wanting to make love with their significant other.

Atheism clearly isn't the only controversial stance one can take.

Sam Harris puts his viewpoint out there clearly and loudly: and many people disagree with him. This is what makes him controversial.

But it doesn't it make him right or wrong. Read his stuff and make your own mind up. I recommend "Letter to a Christian Nation" as a very good place to start. It's a succinct summary of his views. I happen to agree with most of them. You may not.

But you'll hopefully think about stuff.

And -surely- that's the point of reading anything.

AnswerDouglas Wilson in his reply to Sam Harris (Letter from a Christian Citizen, American Vision, Powder Springs 2007.) highlights a number of the key inconsistencies and certainly controversial statements in Harris' work 'Letter to a Christian Nation.'

Wilson highlights a number of key assumptions and beliefs of Harris, which , as stated above make him indeed controversial. The assumptions of Harris are indeed shown to be on the level of personal beliefs, which, like Richard Dawkins, he regards as proven facts, and like Dawkins, he has automatically ruled out any other possibility from the start.

Among other things, Wilson points out the inconsistencies in Harris's argument, one example being when he praises the Jains for their non-violent approach and then criticizes Christians for their approach to embryonic stem cell research in terms of their opposition to killing human embryos.

This is one place one can get a direct insight into why Harris is so controversial, and why so many thinking people find his arguments flawed, including the author of this section.