Ross Douthat asks Sam Harris why the idea of a god is not a conclusion that could be drawn from the evidence of the universe existing and all that we experience? He asks it in a reasonable manner.
https://youtu.be/bjoe-DPhMWU?t=1068
Sam’s answer starts at 18:55
https://youtu.be/bjoe-DPhMWU?t=1131
It’s one of the most succinct yet thorough answers to that question that I’ve heard.
They had earlier discussed consciousness and Sam repeats it’s something we can be certain of, because we experience it, but that doesn’t give us any proof of anything we might think about the cosmos. His point is, just “the lights being on” is where our suffering and happiness comes from, and that forms morality and ethics.
He states the limits of what we know or can know, and maybe “the universe is stranger than we can think”, a quote from JBS Haldane. That allows for the idea that the universe could have been created by an intelligence that we can’t fathom, but it does not indicate that that sort of mind, wrote the Bible, or any other scripture.
Ross tries to find an opening but Sam notes that the human mind has improved on the scriptures we have, so this universe-creating being should have been able to do better. Ross falls back on the New Testament as an inspiring text. It gets a little silly after that.