To say that something is “natural,” or that it has conferred an adaptive advantage upon our species, is not to say that it is “good” in the required … - Sam Harris

We should profile Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim, and we should be honest about it. And, again, I wouldn’t put someone who looks like me entirely outside the bull’s-eye (after all, what would Adam Gadahn look like if he cleaned himself up?) But there are people who do not stand a chance of being jihadists, and TSA screeners can know this at a glance.

Surely, if we could create the world anew, the practice of organizing our lives around untestable propositions found in ancient literature — to say nothing of killing and dying for them — would be impossible to justify. What stops us from finding it impossible now?

I’m not denying the importance of achieving one’s goals, maintaining one’s health, or keeping one’s children clothed and fed — but most of us spend our time seeking happiness and security without acknowledging the underlying purpose of our search. Each of us is looking for a path back to the present: We are trying to find good enough reasons to be satisfied now.