Sam Harris

What is the nature of subjective reality and how does it relate to reality at large?

And is there anything to...

You know, who was someone like Jesus or Buddha?

And are these people frauds?

Are these just myths?

Or is there really a continuum of insight to be had here that is interesting?

So I spent a lot of time on that question through the full decade of my 20s.

No, but then when 9-11 happened...

I had spent all this time reading religious books, empathically understanding the motivations of religious people, knowing just how fully certain people believe what they say they believe.

So I took religious convictions very seriously.

And then people started flying planes into our buildings, so I knew that there was something to be said about that.

The core doctrines of Islam, exactly.

So that became my wheelhouse for a time, you know, terrorism and jihadism and related topics.

And so the 9-11 truth conspiracy thing kept getting aimed at me.

And the question was, well, do I want to debate these people?

Yeah.

So Alex Jones, I think, was an early purveyor of it, although I don't think I knew who he was at that point.

Yeah.

And privately, I had some very long debates with people who, you know, one person in my family went way down that rabbit hole.

And I just, you know, every six months or so, I'd literally write the two-hour email, you know, that would try to deprogram him, you know, however ineffectually.