Sam Harris: On Death

Sam Harris: On Death | Big Think

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13 жыл бұрын

Sam Harris: On Death
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Religion does not teach grief, Harris says.
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SAM HARRIS:
Sam Harris is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction.
Mr. Harris' writing has been published in over ten languages. He and his work have been discussed in Newsweek, TIME, The New York Times, Scientific American, Rolling Stone, and many other journals. His writing has appeared in Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Times (London), The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, Nature, The Annals of Neurology, and elsewhere.
Mr. Harris is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University and holds a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA, where he studied the neural basis of belief with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). He is also a Co-Founder and CEO of Project Reason.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Question: Do you have any existential worries?
Sam Harris: Well I do have existential worries. And I, I think like everybody else, am concerned about death. You know it’s . . . Death is, in some ways, unacceptable. It’s just an astonishing fact of our being here that we die; but I think worse than that is if we live long enough, we lose everyone we love in this world. I mean people die and disappear, and we’re left with this stark mystery: just the sheer not knowing of what happened to them. And into this void, religion comes rushing with a very consoling story saying, “Nothing happened to them. They’re in a better place, and you’re gonna meet up with them after you die. You’re gonna get everything you want after you die. Death is an illusion.” There’s no question that that . . . if you could believe it, that would pay emotional dividends. I mean there’s no other story you can tell somebody who has lost her daughter to cancer, say, to make her feel good. You know, it is consoling to believe that the daughter was just taken up with Jesus, and everyone’s gonna be reunited in a few short years. There’s no replacement for that. There doesn’t need to be a replacement for that. I think we have to be . . . We have to just witness the cost of that. There are many obvious costs of that way of thinking. One is we just don’t teach people how to grieve. You know, religion is the epitome, the antithesis of teaching your children how to grieve. You tell your child that, “Grandma is in heaven”, and there’s nothing to be sad about. That’s religion. It would be better to equip your child for the reality of this life, which is, you know, we . . . death is a fact. And we don’t know what happens after death. And I’m not pretending to know that you get a dial tone after death. I don’t know what happens after the physical brain dies. I don’t know what the relationship between consciousness and the physical world is. I don’t think anyone does know. Now I think there are many reasons to be doubtful of naïve conceptions about the soul, and about this idea that you could just migrate to a better place after death. But I simply don’t know about what . . . I don’t know what I believe about death. And I don’t think it’s necessary to know in order to live as sanely and ethically and happily as possible. I don’t think you get . . . You don’t get anything worth getting by pretending to know things you don’t know.
Recorded on: July 4 2007

Пікірлер: 1 900

@TheLazyKey 8 жыл бұрын

"You don't get anything worth getting if you pretend to know things you don't know" I am definitely going to hold onto this quote.

@reynam2576 8 жыл бұрын

It's brilliant!

@MendoncaRicardo 5 жыл бұрын

It's a diversion. Believing is not 'knowing'. And you do get something out of belief. I believe, for example, that no one lives without beliefs, whichever. Looking at it in a cold light in some way, religion(s) has proved itself far more than science: science has surely proven us that we can kill 50 0000 people in 5 minutes with a single bomb and that drones can kill us 'automatically', without a care in world. :D . Religion is part of us since, dare I say, we were monkeys, and got us off those trees and onto the wheat fields and through newton theory just fine.

@MendoncaRicardo 5 жыл бұрын

@Zackariah Schultz I appreciate the many achievements of the human enterprise and science being one of them. That however is a confirmation bias. You would have to balance the life expectancy of some with the premature death of many others. Not blaming science per se, just not underestimate napalm, atom and hidrogen bombs, drones, pervasive surveillance, mass-media mod lynching, thoughtcrime culture etc.

@storminmormn6283 5 жыл бұрын

TheLazyKey Donald Trump would say otherwise lmao. President of the US seems like it’s worth getting in some peoples eyes.

@MrMarco855 4 жыл бұрын

It's among the most ignorant of things I've heard. He said there are many problems with believing in an afterlife. He named one, a ridiculous claim at that. He said the problem with believing in the afterlife is you don't teach your children how to grieve. Nobody teaches anyone how to grieve you idiot. Grieving comes naturally, according to this dim wit if we're not taught how to grieve then we'll never be able to grieve properly, like there is such a thing. I believe in an afterlife, I also seem to grieve just fine. Grasping to find something 'bad' about believing in an afterlife is to say that you're wrong before you say anything. If believing in an afterlife had real repercussions we would all be very aware of those things before the great Sammy came to inform us. That's one of my questions re: atheists. Why does an atheist celebrate, or seem happy to hear that a Christian left the church? Christians are happy when an atheist converts because we believe that their happiness for eternity depends upon believing. It doesn't matter that atheists don't believe in that, from our point of view we're happy for that person and his eternal life. However, what does a Christian gain by leaving the church, such that an atheist would be happy about it? The person that left gains nothing, there is no promise of anything. That has to insinuate that atheists are happy because it helps them, not the other person. It helps them to prove that they're right and Christians are wrong, and in their minds it reinforces that they're right about being an atheist,...….. even though it does nothing of the sort. It's very selfish and foolish to be happy so you can win 'the battle' against Christians, when the other possibility is that you're wrong and we're right. In that case, your selfish thrill hardly makes up for lost eternal bliss. That's an issue I have with atheists, being happy for no good reason when a church member leaves and never considering how horrible that person's choice is if they're wrong, and what the severity of never ending consequences really means.

@havumetmatt 8 жыл бұрын

this video has the best thumbnail

@joed8697 7 жыл бұрын

havumetmatt what's a thumbnail?

@aethelred1987 7 жыл бұрын

+Jon Draper The nail on your thumb.

@CLHLC 7 жыл бұрын

Came here in search of this comment..

@UTurn539 7 жыл бұрын

hahaha same !

@Emmiee114 7 жыл бұрын

havumetmatt haha 😂

@soulcube8008 7 жыл бұрын

if there is no afterlife i will be super pissed

@jackbenson8228 7 жыл бұрын

lol

@CsaszarMusik 7 жыл бұрын

you would'nt obviously. maybe you would be if there is..

@thecenteroftheuniverse5982 7 жыл бұрын

If there is no afterlife then you won't be pissed, you simply won't experience anything at all.

@dunner079 7 жыл бұрын

idiot.its an ironic joke

@user-Void-Star 7 жыл бұрын

if we can exist in this life time as a human being why not in future life as an animal?

@rr7firefly 8 жыл бұрын

"I simply don't know," says Sam Harris. That's a refreshing bit of honesty that shows real intelligence. All of the atheists I have encountered speak with a certainty that often includes a condescending opinion about what others believe.

@xxxYugooxxx 7 жыл бұрын

We don't know but I'm 99.999999999999999% certain that my state in the year 2216 will be exact the same as my state in the year 1916. He has another speech that breaks down how unlikely life after death is.

@squamish4244 7 жыл бұрын

I think there's actually quite a lot of evidence for a non-local consciousness and therefore the possibility of life after death. This is an extremely controversial subject because the field is so little studied (in 130 years, it has had fewer man-hours devoted to it than four months of North American social psychology) and if you dare to bring it up you are generally labelled naive or full of wishful thinking. But work by people like Charles Tart, Julia Mossbridge, Ian Stevenson, and Rupert Sheldrake (as the most well known) point to something interesting going on. Harris has criticized Stevenson's work but I don't buy his criticisms.

@rr7firefly 7 жыл бұрын

valar Thank you for the references, Valar. It is interesting to me how people on both sides of the question are looking for certainty. And, truthfully, to date that has proven elusive.

@squamish4244 7 жыл бұрын

Noe Berengena Hey no problem. Don't check them on Wikipedia though, a small group of editors has hijacked the parapsychology pages and deletes most of the information people try to post regarding legitimate peer-reviewed studies. The articles aren't even structured well; the criticism sections are often several times the size of the sections discussing the phenomena/personalities in question.

@richgowell7166 7 жыл бұрын

Check out "The Self Does Not Die". If its contents don't give you pause regarding this, you aren't reading it with an open, rational mind.

@usa26point2mileman 10 жыл бұрын

Wow. That totally shocked me. I always thought Harris believed that death was the end of human consciousness, period. He didn't say that at all.

@ibn_klingschor 10 жыл бұрын

It seemed to me that he was appeasing his views for the audience.

@corradojohnsopranojr.9426 10 жыл бұрын

I think death being the end of human consciousness is what Sam, as well as many religious people actually believe. Deep down we know this is all we have. None of us can say we know what happens after death. And it is something that to the human mind seems impenterable, period. Noone has come back from the dead to say what will happen. But there are zero reasons to believe there is anything after death besides eternal void.

@ibn_klingschor 10 жыл бұрын

"as well as many religious people actually believe". I don't believe this, people can totally self-delude themselves. I believe that some actually can believe in wild fantasies even deep down like this.

@corradojohnsopranojr.9426 10 жыл бұрын

im_not_afraid Some sure can. I'd imagine there is a significant amount who want to believe it but deep down don't. Maybe you're right, but if there's anything more disconcerting than death it's eternal life.

@squamish4244 6 жыл бұрын

I disagree. There are some people who, through various spiritual experiences, have lost even the idea of death as an end of anything, and have already experienced an identity-free Void in this life. They only see an infinite existence. Many people are attached to the idea of disappearing at death because they don't like the idea of living forever. But they are thinking in terms of how they experience life right now.

@letsgoBrandon204 7 жыл бұрын

It would be really nice to see my grandparents again. And my dog :(

@no22sill 8 жыл бұрын

But is there wife after death

@douglasdholt 8 жыл бұрын

+no22sill I certainly hope not!

@adamleckius2725 8 жыл бұрын

+no22sill Muslim men would be very disappointed

@steffenpanning2776 8 жыл бұрын

+no22sill and harris says religion does not teach grief...

@AustinTexas6thStreet 8 жыл бұрын

Millions and millions of men certainly hope Not!! Wife after death = HELL... The "AfterWife" is the 25 yr old hottie you date when you divorce your old bitchy wife!!! In my Heaven, all women are beautiful and sweet and never older than 30!! It's like the most Epic strip club Ever and Jesus is the bouncer and bartender!!!

@WildPhotoShooter 5 жыл бұрын

There is life after wife. hahahahaha! joke!

@drinkingwithfireflies5625 8 жыл бұрын

This is why I respect sam Harris. Because he doesn't claim that he knows everything, and he openly admits that he doesn't know what will happen after death. From a scientific perspective claiming that you don't know is the most rational and honest viewpoint to hold. It's the same as the debate about extraterrestrial intelligence and other civilizations in the universe, we clearly do not have any data either way so we can't say for certain which likelihood is more probable. It is the same with an afterlife, none of us are in any position to say what will happen after death and that goes for religious people, fundamentalists, as well as staunch atheists. If there were an afterlife why would it have to be a supernatural one? Mathematical hypotheses about multiverses and parallel realities are subjects that are already considered for scientific discussion. We have no idea about how consciousness works. But we do know that the universe is stranger than we could possibly imagine. We are talking apes in space on a tiny world with no idea about why we are here, but everyone struts about thinking they know. We have much to learn and until we have the answers, the most honest position to take on this subject is "I don't know."

@Atheist603 7 жыл бұрын

All evidence point to no afterlife, it's up to whoever claim that there's such thing as afterlife to demonstrate it. I personally don't believe in afterlife and think that it's a stupid concept but I'm aware that I can be wrong. I simply don't even think much about it.

@joech1065 7 жыл бұрын

DrinkingWithFireflies The point that people are missing is if there is an afterlife for a human that is smashed in a car crash, it's the same afterlife as for rats smashed by a heavy rock, or a harddrive that just got annihilated by a hammer. Thinking that laws of physics somehow make exceptions for humans is a gross misunderstanding of what scientists say when they claim that we don't know.

@linusverclyte4988 6 жыл бұрын

You're right: no-one knows for sure. Yet the rational, sceptic viewpoint would be that aslong as we don't have evidence we assume any positive claims (e.g heaven, reincarnation) are false untill proven otherwise. Basically teh null-hypothesis in scientific research. That is why it's rational to believe death is the permanent end of consciousness, there are no gods etcetera. To believe something that isn't even remotely supported by evidence is no different or only marginally different from someone hallucinating and thinking they're Jezus, Napoleon... From what we know the law of entropy applies to all things: everything dies including the stars, planets, entire solar systems and the universe will one day be devoid of all activity and be for all intents and purposes dead (Big Freeze). Why on earth would we be the exception to the rule? Because we think we're special? Because most of us have a hard time dealing with our own mortality? To summarise: I'd complement your assertion with 'and I don't believe any positive claims without supporting evidence'.

@squamish4244 6 жыл бұрын

I think there's more evidence than a lot of people are aware of. The very fact that no current model of the universe provides a sufficient explanation for how we are even aware means that the is a huge gap in our knowledge of reality that could easily include some sort of life after death, if for instance as some speculate, consciousness may be an intrinsic aspect of the universe. As for more mundane work, even skeptical parapsychological researchers say there is enough interesting going on to continue to study psi phenomena. Harris himself once thought we should seriously look into the many odd stories of children who remember details of past lives, but his position seems to have hardened in recent years - perhaps due to criticism from his atheist colleagues - and he dismissed these (thousands of) researched stories in an essay that was unconvincing to me. Parapsycholovy remains a grossly underfunded and understaffed area of science in which it is hard to do any work and be taken seriously, so it is difficult to even accumulate evidence in the first place. The replication problem it faces is not limited to psi research; the entire psychology field has a replication problem.

@naturalisted1714 6 жыл бұрын

DrinkingWithFireflies death leads to nothingness and that nothingness is once again interrupted by what brought us here in the first place: Birth. (Not reincarnation)

@syzygy21055 6 жыл бұрын

"You don't get anything worth getting by pretending to know things you don't know." Words to live by.

@venkat70 11 жыл бұрын

Sam is an honest human. I wish there were more people like him.

@Tasermaxx 6 жыл бұрын

This universe was humming along for billions of years before my being. Those billions of years didn't leave any negative affect on me. Same goes for the other end of the hourglass.

@TravisBickle0312 4 жыл бұрын

@Peter Kazavis Strange question. Why does a tree that falls down in the jungle for nobody to hear it still make a sound? What's the point?

@arianagrandaremix8858 3 жыл бұрын

@@TravisBickle0312 coz we all want to live and thats why we go as far as denying death to the point where not beleiving in reality becomes a norm .

@sourenatube5381 2 жыл бұрын

The universe is not existance itself, either something exists or doesn't exist, there can't be a beginning or end to existance, but there could be to a universe

@sourenatube5381 2 жыл бұрын

@@arianagrandaremix8858 do you accept mortality?

@arianagrandaremix8858 2 жыл бұрын

@@sourenatube5381 If u mean loss of consciousness then yes Loss of existence then no

@melanie6014 5 жыл бұрын

I suppose we'll all find out won't we?

@arcad1an292 7 жыл бұрын

I believe that when you die, it's not an experience, you don't know you're dead.

@naturalisted1714 6 жыл бұрын

WISE ARCADIAN death leads to nothingness and that nothingness is once again interrupted by what brought us here in the first place: Birth. (Not reincarnation)

@aliakbararofah 5 жыл бұрын

+WHWWD And Philosophy do you mean birth as another human,for example if A was die on 2019 ,then A was born as B in 2050

@xsuploader 4 жыл бұрын

@@aliakbararofah not necessarily it depends on if animals have the feeling I. If not then it has to be a human (or alien lifeform). of course this is just speculation. Death may literally be the end.

@kevinharte3636 4 жыл бұрын

Akram Choudhary For me, the idea of being reborn creature to creature like that is scary. I’d rather have eternal oblivion. To leave all of my loved ones behind and set off on an endless journey of hoping from creature to creature, potentially suffering a horrible life every so often. I know I probably wouldn’t remember a thing from this life but the idea of doing this for eternity is sometimes horrifying to me. I, at least for now, hope that when I die that’s it.

@lancerebo952 4 жыл бұрын

Kevin Harte Buddhism agrees. But also provides a way out aka nirvana

@theremainingplank 11 жыл бұрын

It always makes me chuckle when people talk about what happens after death with certainty.

@diegochavez8752 5 жыл бұрын

I love how he's so humble by admitting we don't have a clue what is the relation between consciousness and the physycal world unlike other scientist who think they know the answer based on assumptions.

@arianagrandaremix8858 3 жыл бұрын

Well actually science is pretty clear and there is no assumption on the topic of death . But obviously we want to beleive elsewise coz its easier that way

@drzeworyj 2 жыл бұрын

if you knew his content more, you'd know he's not humble at all with certain statements...

@mdrayhanuddinmojumder 2 жыл бұрын

@@drzeworyj Nature doesn't care whether he is humble or arrogant. Being humble isn't the only default.

@robertdouglas8895 2 жыл бұрын

..and goes through life admitting that he doesn't know...but never asks for the answers.

@TommyFlanagan666 10 ай бұрын

@diegochavez8852 My sentiments exactly. And three out of four people prior to me felt the need to jump in and straighten you out, which isn’t surprising. I try not to be the kind of atheist anymore who does that and instead keep comments like yours a conversation. Atheists who feel this need to be right and know things no one can possibly know…I don’t see any difference between their certainty and tactics than the ones of evangelical christians who know these things. 🤷🏼‍♂️

@schizophreniccynic9141 7 жыл бұрын

Death ties into the confusion we feel about immortality. We don't like to end, but we also don't want to persist. What are we doing then if not just skimming, none of us truly live then, just pieces as time goes on.

@wallykaspars9700 10 жыл бұрын

The phrase a christian would never utter "I don't know."

@cmoneygiles 5 жыл бұрын

Hey Wally, in case in the past four years you still haven't heard this from a Christian, allow me to say that I am one and there are many things I don't know.

@ConsumeristScroffa 5 жыл бұрын

Well, atheists have difficulty to utter those words too. Ideology can occur in both parties.

@timlaskowski53 5 жыл бұрын

Wally Kaspars as a Christian, I can attest to the fact that there are tons of things that I don’t know.

@russellscott9314 4 жыл бұрын

Then why are they just a scared to die as anyone else? I believe everyone is agnostic at the bare minimum.

@RootyTootTootin 4 жыл бұрын

Yeah that’s not true at all

@angelofretribution2161 10 жыл бұрын

I agree with him on that. I don't want to believe that ha ha but I do. Just because death is unfavorable, doesn't mean we should lie to ourselves.

@pander22 9 жыл бұрын

An individuals death is only the death of their individuality.

@pinkusfloydus9373 6 жыл бұрын

pander22 I like that.. My brother died 3 years ago... I was rarely sad.. I was happy for him. He has to be in a better place, because any place is better than here.. So good on ya man, you got out.. Ive thought that for a while.

@michaelrosen5333 6 жыл бұрын

Why do you suppose that death is unfavourable?

@russellscott9314 4 жыл бұрын

@@epiphany55 What about when your sexy ass isn't sexy anymore? Bring it the fuck on.

@arianagrandaremix8858 3 жыл бұрын

@Subarashii Ningen denial Ps: if beleir of an eternal punishment keeps u in check then shame on u

@DailyWhitt 11 жыл бұрын

My faith taught me to number my days, to take life seriously, and to grieve - to have compassion that grieves with those who grieve. That's one of the strongest points of a faith-based community. We don't suppress grief. We grieve with hope, together.

@astroglide420 11 жыл бұрын

"I don't know what the relationship between consciousness and the physical world is." For me this is a awe inspiring statement that has a lot of the greatest ideas and values packaged into it. And just remembering, all the implications of pan consciousness, and quantum theory, even religions and mysticism, by hearing that sentence, BLEW MY MIND, again.

@squamish4244 Жыл бұрын

Harris has become a more rigid atheist and dogmatisit regarding consciousness in recent years, unfortunately.

@Benjamin93swe1 10 жыл бұрын

Love this, this is the kind of brutal honesty and heartfelt compassion that gets to your heart. Admitting that you don´t know something takes guts, especially when you´re well known to be outspoken on quite a lot of different subjects. "What is the Soul? How does conscioussnes arise? These our questions we don´t know the answer to, and I don´t think we will ever be able to explain it" - Arvid Carlsson, Nobel Laureate, famous for his work on Dopamine and Seretonin

@cocfriscocommunity9064 Жыл бұрын

Yes, but many things that we don’t know, someone else has experientially experienced that reality

@sourenatube5381 2 жыл бұрын

I love how he realistically sees death rather than those who say "accept mortality" "there's no afterlife"

@gintorino4616 2 жыл бұрын

Do you know what the song at the beginning of the video is called

@sourenatube5381 2 жыл бұрын

@@gintorino4616 good question, I don't know

@gintorino4616 2 жыл бұрын

@@sourenatube5381 then who made the video to put the song in it

@brianjoyce9040 5 жыл бұрын

Live and experience this for what it is worth. I mean that in all the best considerate and compassionate ways

@willygelmo 6 жыл бұрын

I have to say to Harris that I admire his honesty although I've passed a lot of time trying to argue his opinions in other topic. I find really beautiful the fact that everyone have to face the same worries after all

@Supernov4 9 жыл бұрын

What happens after death? It's not that we don't know but it's a meaningless question. Why is no one asking what happened before we were born? It's equally pointless to ask such questions. It's kinda like asking where do we go when we're asleep, it makes no sense. Imagining death is not hard, you even go blank every day sleeping. You will die eventually, so experience life now that you can.

@bbtel 9 жыл бұрын

The human brain is a powerful tool that allows us to think and formulate. With that power we have gone beyond our solar system. We have also allowed ourselves to succumb to the creation of mythic fantasy. The beauty of LIFE is great as well there is great tragedy. Enjoy the visit on planet earth because it is a brief one and only that. DNA, genetics, biology, disease, physical defect, war and famine,love and hate are the proof of the reality of NOW.

@quagmire444 8 жыл бұрын

+oR3Io Just because you don't remember a certain point of consciousness in your life, it doesn't mean you weren't conscious. We dream every night in REM sleep and yet we don't always remember it. When our brains are just developing, we are conscious yet have no memory of those times. The same could be true about before we died and after we died.

@Supernov4 8 жыл бұрын

quagmire444 This isn't about memory, Consciousness is very clearly an emergent property of a brain, and without it there is no "you". Hence you will be gone in the same way when you die as "you were" before you were born. Stating anything otherwise is just all very nonsensical, you are what you've accumulated over the years in your brain. When you die that information, the 'you', is just lost. And babies aren't self conscious from the start, it doesn't form until a certain point as the brains develop as well.

@Supernov4 8 жыл бұрын

***** ***** Just because something is unexplained or unknown doesn't mean that anything goes. There's no reason to ponder some nonsensical ideas like this any more than it is to ask questions like what is the color of fast. Keep your mind open but no so much that your brains fall out.

@Supernov4 8 жыл бұрын

***** With some assisting it's theoretically plausable to be transfarable elsewhere. But that's not what we're talking about here. In nature it doesn't happen. I don't know what you mean by "not any religious or supernatural sense". You have an example? OBEs NDEs happen in the brain like anything else you experience, these experiences can also be triggered with certain drugs. Hell the brain is capable of making images and sounds on it's own. The fact that you experience things doesn't mean that your experience is necessarily accurate or that consciousness would outlive the brain. One simply doesn't follow the other. This still stands: Just because something is unexplained or unknown doesn't mean that anything goes.

@epiphany55 6 жыл бұрын

Billy: Daddy, where has granny gone? Dad: Her energy is being transferred to the worms that are eating her. Billy: K.

@russellscott9314 4 жыл бұрын

I believe that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right.

@chasemcdaniel3620 4 жыл бұрын

@@russellscott9314 That is an extremely creepy view of death. Like a bad horror movie.

@russellscott9314 4 жыл бұрын

@@chasemcdaniel3620 lol. Are you playing along or no?

@vdmur7952 3 жыл бұрын

hahaha

@B20C0 2 жыл бұрын

@@chasemcdaniel3620 Someone here wasn't into cheesy 90s movies.

@MrFranzisko 12 жыл бұрын

Cannot unsee... Thank you very much...

@CHEVonsteam 12 жыл бұрын

his right eye is higher than his left. he tilts his head unknowingly tilts his head to fix the discrepancy, how amazing the body is.

@neragato5960 3 жыл бұрын

If this life is all there is, I'd rather be dead.

@naturalisted1714 3 жыл бұрын

I didn't exist, but then a baby was born. There will be babies born after I no longer exist once again.

@erikawolf3736 3 жыл бұрын

@@naturalisted1714 you will probably be one of those new babies

@joshuanicholls2692 7 жыл бұрын

Every atom of my being can be traced back to a star that exploded. Moreover, we were once together in a singularity at the birth of our Universe. We get recycled and give birth to new Life and new Universes forever and ever.

@Capgungoesbang 12 жыл бұрын

I love that he just straight out says that he does not know what to really believe when it comes to death. It's the one subject that no one can ever really know what will happen, no matter how hard they try to tell you with whatever facts. There's more reason to believe that nothing will really happen but honestly no one can know until their final moment. The possibilities of the outcome of your death are endless.

@speng01 12 жыл бұрын

"You don't get anything worth getting by pretending to know things you don't know."

@Haygirl345 10 жыл бұрын

This is very insightful.

@strengthinweakness1 10 жыл бұрын

Actually your are very deceived because you are very deceivable. Two reasons: 1. Evil bias 2. Inability to think critically If you disagree then state what you consider insightful and why.

@Haygirl345 10 жыл бұрын

strengthinweakness1 What is "Evil bias"?

@strengthinweakness1 10 жыл бұрын

Hayley Marie Smith It means that one prefers evil and distortion over truth and purity, and therefore applauds evil rhetoric without critical analysis. Now I may have judged you wrongly since I don't know what you meant by insightful. But if you agree with Harris' anti God rhetoric then it does apply.

@Haygirl345 10 жыл бұрын

I don't agree with anti-God rhetoric simply because it's anti-God. I think the fact that Harris simply said, 'I don't know' is the insightful part. It takes a lot of insight to say that, when life is a very scary and unsure thing and humanity has a strong desire to latch onto what we think we may know.

@jayjayjay4369 10 жыл бұрын

***** What is the difference where I "got it"? If the shoe fits....

@barbarianater 5 жыл бұрын

This whole video summed up in one sentence: "i don't know" 😂 but i am still gonna pester people who are certain they know lol

@arianagrandaremix8858 3 жыл бұрын

Edit : ppl who think they know but r denying reality

@angelforfreedom 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tip, man!

@jjjay30 7 жыл бұрын

I'm an alpha male in complete control of my life. Death is horrifying to me. It's so final, so completely uncontrollable. I honestly hope there is another life to live after this one. Nothing like what religion says, but just another human life.

@no22sill 8 жыл бұрын

What if I get a dial tone after dying

@mapleplatoon 8 жыл бұрын

Wait. If you get a voice saying "Sorry, the afterlife you have reached does not currently exist.", dial another number.

@naturalisted1714 6 жыл бұрын

no22sill death leads to nothingness and that nothingness is once again interrupted by what brought us here in the first place: Birth. (Not reincarnation)

@johnathanwoods1223 6 жыл бұрын

Ted Bolha Atheism Philosophy Science are you sure. No, you're not. The fear comes in to even believers because no one knows what happens other than the physical body decaying.

@JohnnyCatFitz 6 жыл бұрын

A dial tone is something full of possibilities. You would know that if you grew up before cell phones.

@GCOLE2 5 жыл бұрын

Hopefully, the fucking robocalls won't start.....

@titomister10 9 жыл бұрын

Even if heaven were in fact true, I don't think I would wan't to live there for eternity...

@Yamyatos 9 жыл бұрын

True word. Might be fun for a million years, but what after that? And what after that? Lol eternity is pretty long... I'd like it better if we all vanish. Eternity is not for humans. And besides that i guess hell would be a better place then heaven. In heaven there is no sin. Since sin is a byproduct of free will, they don't even have free will anymore in their paradise O_ö

@titomister10 9 жыл бұрын

***** I'd rather live my life not expecting neither heaven nor hell. Just know that this is the only life I'm going to have.

@domenicomarzolla3045 7 жыл бұрын

Eternity means "out of time", to exist in a timeless, spaceless and dimension-less state. To live for an infinite number of years would be "sempiternous". Jesus is quoted as saying that in the afterlife people shall be "as angels of heaven", so it's pretty moot to try and compare the two situations.

@chinito77 7 жыл бұрын

So what does angels of heaven mean? Do you think that you will be able to freely walk in some alternate plane in which you can speak, touch, and see? Unlikely since those sensations require physical nerves and a brain to feel sensation. Perhaps, your soul will be nothing but a collection of memories in which you cannot interact with other souls, just lumped together for eternity? Either way, to live an "eternity" in heaven and having good and pure thoughts would be so boring. Thinking impure thoughts and do naughty things here and there is to be human.

@squamish4244 6 жыл бұрын

This is why I like Buddhism. Its idea of heaven is a state of being that can be attained in this life, which is said to be a limitless now, with no attachment to a personal identity. So life could go on forever or end tomorrow and it wouldn't matter. Buddhist teacher Shinzen Young has this to say: "What's it like? Well, if I had a choice between experiencing the world as I do now for one day and living an entire lifetime as I did before, I would choose one day like this and you could kill me at the end of it and I would consider it a full life."

@glevtube 6 жыл бұрын

Wow, what an honest and straight answer. Respects!

@bryanttillman 11 жыл бұрын

here, here! I think about that often. It's all down to time. When you die there is no means to measure or experience time. Without that there is no way to experience death...you have no time to experience it. No brain to experience it with. No pain or anxiety.

@TheRussRave 10 жыл бұрын

2:40 "You don't get anything worth getting by pretending to know things you don't know" Well said Dr Harris. Now please try to live by your own words!

@TheRussRave 10 жыл бұрын

DerrenBrown100 "Derren Brown" ROFLMFAO!

@TheRussRave 10 жыл бұрын

***** hmm,.. that's tough one,.. but one thing for sure that can be known is that your grammar and English sucks. I never "knowned" anyone that sucked quite as much!

@TheRussRave 10 жыл бұрын

***** Well, apparently you're not so bad after all,.. and seeing as English is your 2nd/3rd language then poor grammar can be forgiven. Actually you're correct in saying that there are far worse than you. I was just stirring you ;-) As for your "challenge",- I'll pass thanks all the same. I really don't have much to say about Dr Harris other than that he is a smart guy and some of what he says has real merit but really he should get off the "God bashing" bandwagon and stick to brain surgery as he is evidently surgically adept in that discipline but like Prof Dawkins he just can't help but appointing himself as an expert on esoteric and theological subjects when he has no authority or qualifications or distinctions in either! Anyway,.. nice meeting you online. Have a nice day!

@TheRussRave 10 жыл бұрын

***** Some good points but in all honesty I currently don't have the time or the inclination. "atheist bashing",.. haven't heard of that one before but it seems like a fun pastime for anyone feeling slightly bored ;-) I can assure you that I've already watched enough Harris, Dawkins and Hitchins videos to take up a month full of Sundays and as for arguing with KZfaq atheists,.. I think I'm going to turn it into a charge-by-the-hour engagement then at least that way I could be sure on a definite return on my time investment and probably garner more attention and committed conversation when people know that their opinion sharing and straw man arguments are actually costing them money! Cheers ;-)

@loganmilliken2727 9 жыл бұрын

Why should we have to be taught how to grieve? Do we even need to grieve?

@skazzaks1 9 жыл бұрын

logan milliken I think most psychologists would yell a resounding "yes!"

@JagjitBrawler 9 жыл бұрын

+logan milliken I think that it teaches you how to move on after going through something horrible. It teaches you how to get back up after being pushed to the ground. It teaches you how to accept what happened.

@johnathanwoods1223 6 жыл бұрын

Some people don't grieve at all. Some do for a short period of time and some need a mental health professional.

@willd.8040 5 жыл бұрын

Have you lost someone very close to you? I lost my dad two months ago and I grieve every day. It’s almost impossible not to. I will never see him or speak to him again. This thought is worse than thinking of my own death. I won’t experience that. But I experience his loss every single day.

@teamatfort444 3 жыл бұрын

Will Dominguez losing others is definitely worse then dying yourself imo

@heersrivastava2635 3 жыл бұрын

Love this man, gives it to you straight

@BenRai2k 10 жыл бұрын

Also I'd like to point out that my dad died a couple of years ago - and I didn't require, nor do, need to feel that he is "in a better place". I accept he is gone and I live my life aware he had his chance in life and now he is gone. It is sad, and some members of the family choose to imagine he "is elsewhere", but I don't need that type of comfort.

@RShaun 10 жыл бұрын

I'm not religious or atheist. I have no clue what category I fall into. But here is my gripe with Mr. Harris. He says he doesn't know what happens after death and it isn't necessary to know, but makes a claim that it is better to inform kids a specific way. Who is to say that the hope of a good outcome isn't better than an obscure explanation? You can still teach grief while hoping your loved ones are in a pleasant state.

@MartinStaykov 10 жыл бұрын

Two reasons. Firstly, if we teach kids the counter-intuitive fact that there's life after death they might start thinking that death is a good thing and maybe blow themselves up in a building or something (sound familiar?). Secondly, Sam's actually being quite humble in this video by just saying 'we don't know'. Check out what he said here /watch?v=mlCjy52h0hc at 1:10:35 about damaging the brain.

@RShaun 10 жыл бұрын

Your first argument is full of holes. You call it both counter intuitive and a fact. Not that this is an impossible paradox. Second you say teaching it can lead to suicide but most Muslims and Christrians don't. That is very apparent to any half reasoning individual. And I believe he is being humble because this wasn't a full on platform for his ideas but a small intro to an varied audience.

@MartinStaykov 10 жыл бұрын

RShaun Dave I don't think it's full of holes. Yes, the word fact shouldn't be there, I don't know why I used it. But still, doesn't affect the point I was trying to make. I said it can lead and it indeed has led and does lead to suicide. What fraction of the people do it is not that important. The important thing is that it gives nothing in return to justify for those "few" who suffer. Plus, that's just one of the 'side effects' of religion. There are many more. BTW, don't ever underestimate the stupidity of these so called "half reasoning" individuals.

@jonesgerard 10 жыл бұрын

"but makes a claim that it is better to inform kids a specific way." Atheists think they know better how parents should teach their own children, they (atheists) think they are God. Thats the danger with atheism.

@dustinmorgart6493 10 жыл бұрын

jonesgerard Everyone thinks they know how to raise children better than everyone else, just go to a PTA meeting sometime. There's no danger with atheism, and there's no danger in being religious. There's danger in either one believing they're ultimately right and being stubborn about it. We don't know. We don't know if there's a God, we don't know how we got here. We all have different ideas about it, and it's not until these ideas clash that there becomes a problem. Nothing is proven, and no theory or belief is right. Believe in what you want, but that's all it is...a belief.

@CelebritySwears 8 жыл бұрын

Nobody knows what happens after you die. That being said, take one trip of LSD or equivalent Psychedelics and you will be slapped with the knowledge that consciousness is shared between all beings and seems infinite in its stretch. Honestly after my first LSD experience I no longer fear death to the same extent, I still think there's a certain extent of unknowability that can be disconcerting, but it's hardly tragic. What I do know is that our "energy", stream of consciousness or what have you is eternal in some form, and to me, that was a very comforting truth. Life is awesome.

@JoseAmaya-gp2yb 8 жыл бұрын

+CelebritySwears I have taken LSD many times and what you felt was just your drug-addled mind giving you comforting thoughts, there was no "truth" as you gained no objective evidence to bolster you argument. I'm glad tripping made you feel good, but don't read too much into basic chemical reactions.

@CelebritySwears 8 жыл бұрын

Jose Amaya Uh no. First of all, the life-changing experience happened not only while I was on LSD but also while i was sober and thoughts were processed. Second of all, why the fuck would I need to present objective evidence of my own enlightenment? Haha, what a joke. I don't need the scientific process to trust myself, such is the issue of our cultural zeitgeist though, so in a sense I suppose a comment such as your own is to be expected. Lastly, what is a "basic chemical reaction". What do you even mean by that? You try to reduce the subjective experience by describing it as a "basic chemical reaction"...Yeah that doesn't mean anything. Based on our systemic naming of things, everything we experience is a "chemical reaction" so to speak. Why should we prioritize some over others? Your rationale completely implodes on itself here. Also I shouldn't have to preface this with "in my opinion", but that should obviously be assumed. Obviously my own spiritual awakenings are purely my own and very personal, I don't intend to convince anyone of anything.

@ssittlow 8 жыл бұрын

pretty cynical. he could be wrong about the nature of truth but who isn't.

@ssittlow 8 жыл бұрын

A person's drug-addled experience is just as much a part of reality as anything else

@jessescotson336 8 жыл бұрын

So your saying you can rely on the knowledge you have gained from this psychedelic experience? There is no evidence of consciousness existing without a brain being present, even if you take the approach that consiousness is separate from the body you still need the brain as a receiver, think of it like a radio, the radio waves are out there but you need a radio to pick them up. And as another point would it REALLY be good to exist for eternity? for ever and ever and ever as the universe decays around you? I wouldn't wish that on my worse enemies.

@MyTurian 10 жыл бұрын

i agree with you there, i believe it is chemicals giving you what you want in your last moments, i just hope it lasts for what feels like a lifetime within the deep mind while dead an not slips into darkness to quickly.

@guitarhero38633 7 жыл бұрын

My main thing is that there was already a time we didn't exist. Does anyone remember it? Was it as soothing as possible? Why must we experience physical reality to understand the concept of the end of life, if before the beginning was already the end? I might sound crazy, but your physical body existed before your awareness. The womb, your first birthday. The brain is just that powerful, and we have yet to discover what it can actually do to its fullest potential.

@TheLonePantheist 7 жыл бұрын

I think you're confusing memory with consciousness. There is a debate as to whether they are mutual exclusive, but I'm pretty sure they are. I don't remember what I ate last week, does that mean I didn't exist? Common sense tells me that I did. As for experience, well, I experience new things everyday, my awareness does not change, my personality might however. I think simply basic awareness is separate from these things, even the perception of time. When you are around children you notice that they are aware of there surroundings. There is also the case of the man in The UK missing 90% of his brain and is still conscious. Feel free to look it up as my phone will not let me post links, or I'm too lazy, one or the other, but that's what search engines are for. Anyway, there is no one understanding of consciousness, so it is open for debate.

@TheLonePantheist 7 жыл бұрын