I had the pleasure of this Sam Harris video showing up on my YouTube feed the other day. I can’t say I’m very familiar with his work. I only know about Sam Harris from his association with the new atheism back almost 20 years ago or so. In the video, he basically just makes the claim that scientific explanations for things are and will continue to replace religious explanations.

He uses epilepsy (probably because he’s a neuroscientist) as an example of how prior to any scientific understanding of neurology, we explained seizures as demonic possession, but now in our scientific age we understand what’s going on. This sounds all very well and good, except that a quick google search on the cause of epilepsy revealed one humorous tidbit.

About half the cases of epilepsy have no known cause.

I just couldn’t help but laugh that in a video where Sam Harris is touting the enlightenment of modern science, he uses as his example a condition in which about half the cases have no known cause. Now, I’m sure he’s confident that either that doesn’t matter or one day we’ll discover the cause or whatever, but it was good for a lark. (My apologies for the word choice. I’ve been reading old English literature lately.)