Is Sam Harris a "neuroscientist"? Or a scientist at all? At least not a good one.

Fawlty said:
Not true at all. The sentiment of the blog is an all out hit job on Harris. He accuses him of fraud in the beginning of it. Most people do not agree that Harris is a fraud.
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Most people agreed that the blog but especially this thread exposed Harris as an absolute fraud who should really not be taken seriously.
 
lecter said:
Most people agreed that the blog but especially this thread exposed Harris as an absolute fraud who should really not be taken seriously.
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This was the intent of your thread, right there, yet you pretended that it wasn't. Lame attempt, but thanks for almost being honest about your intentions after being called on them multiple times and denying.
 
lecter said:
Most people agreed that the blog but especially this thread exposed Harris as an absolute fraud who should really not be taken seriously.
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ad ho·mi·nem
ˌad ˈhämənəm/
adverb & adjective
  1. 1.
    (of an argument or reaction) directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining.
    "vicious ad hominem attacks"
  2. 2.
    relating to or associated with a particular person.
    "the office was created ad hominem for Fenton"
 
Fawlty said:
This was the intent of your thread, right there, yet you pretended that it wasn't. Lame attempt, but thanks for almost being honest about your intentions after being called on them multiple times and denying.
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No it's just a side effect.
unimackpass said:
This is just a few of his whacked ideas.
"One of the smartest people alive"? What the ... desperately needs messiah apparently.
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Yeah very sad that they fall for a fake-scientist :/
kpt018 said:
ad ho·mi·nem
ˌad ˈhämənəm/
adverb & adjective
  1. 1.
    (of an argument or reaction) directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining.
    "vicious ad hominem attacks"
  2. 2.
    relating to or associated with a particular person.
    "the office was created ad hominem for Fenton"
Click to expand...
Yeah we already covered this, you're too late to the party.
 
lecter said:
No it's just a side effect.

Yeah very sad that they fall for a fake-scientist :/

Yeah we already covered this, you're too late to the party.
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Oh good. Glad you've been called out on it already.
 
alanb said:
I like listening to Sam Harris but the guy can be a bit of a prick sometimes. The head of the human genome project is a devout Christian. Sam Harris got asked about the guy and Harris refused to acknowledge the guy was a good scientist. when pushed on the issue Harris finally acknowledged the guy was a good "manager" and nothing else. Simply because this refutesd his claim that you could not be a good scientists and a religious at the same time.

Who was the famous physicist who worked with Einstein that was a Christian?
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Francis S Collins > sam i am

The contrast makes the point of this thread.
" Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH from 1993-2008."
 
Dammit, I thought lecter came back. You left us too soon you charismatic smartass.
 
Browsing this thread was a good reminder of what a godawful poster Lecter was.
 
It sounds like he got a free ride on a project others were working on. Nepotism within the scientific community is not uncommon, no different than hollywood.
 
Fawlty said:
Browsing this thread was a good reminder of what a godawful poster Lecter was.
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In the end he was a snowflake that self banned himself cause of butthurt. I wonder who he posts under now.
 
klnOmega said:
Its completely possible that he wasn't a good scientist. I don't know how much to read into that though. He is a good speaker, writer, and debater. It could have been he was lax in his graduate work because he found his calling was elsewhere.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson's academic background isn't exactly strong either. But no one listens to him to hear him speak about his doctorial thesis. They are listening because he is a smooth speaker and can capture a sense of wonder when explaining simple scientific concepts.
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NDT considers himself a scientist but probably more importantly an educator. I think hes done a hell of a good job on that front.
 
My brother just got his PhD in bioarchaeology..... pretty sure he's a scientist despite not having completed much additional research at this time.
 
lecter said:
The post covers much more and concludes:

1. Since getting his PhD, he has conducted no scientific research.
2. Since getting his PhD, he has taught no university/college courses in neuroscience.
3. Since getting his PhD, he has devoted his efforts to his anti-religious think tank and publishing books, such as the one on using drugs and meditation to discover truths about our reality.
4. He received his PhD through partial funding from his own atheist organization.
5. He didn’t do any of the experiments for his own thesis work.
6. His PhD thesis was about how science can determine what is right and wrong and he turned it into a book for sale.
7. Since publishing his thesis/book, Harris has yet to use science to resolve a single moral dispute.
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This is what you got for your summary of the paper? Wtf?

I was expecting a summary of how Harris botched his analysis and manged so many subjects simultaneously, not a summary of how he was unqualified to undertake the analysis in the first place.

I have no desire to jump to Harris' defense, but I do have certain expectations about my OP's and you sir have failed to meet them.

I give you an "I" for incomplete.
 
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