Read this at my funeral (the whole thing – not just the quote below), as a last message to the biggest crowd i can muster. 😉 www.samharris.org/site/full_text/afterword-to-the-vintage-books-edition/
What we need is a discourse about ethics and spiritual experience that is as unconstrained by ancient ignorance as the discourse of science already is. Science really does transcend the vagaries of culture: there is no such thing as “Japanese” as opposed to “French” science; we don’t speak of “Hindu biology” and “Jewish chemistry.” Imagine a world in which we could have a truly honest and open-ended conversation about our place in the universe and about the possibilities of deepening our self-understanding, ethical wisdom, and compassion. By living as if some measure of sectarian superstition were essential for human happiness, religious moderates prevent such a conversation from ever taking shape.
Entire text: AFTERWORD to the book Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris