I don't revere Sam Harris because I have made a change in my life that doesn't put anyone on a pedestal for their own sake. The only reason he needs to be mentioned at all in this discussion is because he seems to be the originator of the idea.
He's not the originator - this kind of thinking has been going on since Darwin's time, even before Darwin's time. It has only....evolved. It was 1959 (I think) when Julian Huxley wrote these words;
quote:
The concept of evolution was soon extended into other than biological fields. Inorganic subjects such as the life-history of stars and the formation of the chemical elements on the one hand, and on the other hand subjects like linguistics, social anthropology, and comparative law and religion, began to be studied from an evolutionary angle, until today we are enabled to see evolution as a universal and all-pervading process.
Today it's called "Sociobiology".
Sociobiology - Wikipedia
Or, it can be called "New Atheism".
New Atheism - Wikipedia
As it says, Sam Harris is one of the "four horsemen". Little doubt he would like sociobiology/new atheism to be taught as fact in science classes in the U.S. He'll probably have a long wait for that.