The Problem Is That Religion Tends To

It Is Taboo In Our Society To Criticize A Persons Religious Faith... These Taboos Are Offensive, Deeply Unreasonable, But Worse Than That, They Are Getting People Killed. This Is Really My Concern. My Concern Is That Our Religions, The Diversity Of Our Religious Doctrines, Is Going To Get Us Killed. I'm Worried That Our Religious Discourse- Our Religious Beliefs Are Ultimately Incompatible With Civilization.

The Problem I Want To Talk To You About Tonight Is The Problem Of Belief. What Does It Mean To Believe? We Use This Word All The Time, And I Think Behind It Lurk Some Really Extraordinary Taboos And Confusions. What I Want To Argue Tonight Is That How We Talk About Belief- How We Fail To Criticize Or Criticize The Beliefs Of Others, Has More Importance To Us Personally, More Consequence To Us Personally And To Civilization Than Perhaps Anything Else That Is In Our Power To Influence.

The Truth Is That We Simply Do Not Know What Happens After Death.

Indeed, Religion Allows People To Imagine That Their Concerns Are Moral When They Are Highly Immoral - That Is, When Pressing These Concerns Inflicts Unnecessary And Appalling Suffering On Innocent Human Beings. This Explains Why Christians Like Yourself Expend More "moral" Energy Opposing Abortion Than Fighting Genocide. It Explains Why You Are More Concerned About Human Embryos Than About The Lifesaving Promise Of Stem-cell Research. And It Explains Why You Can Preach Against Condom Use In Sub-saharan Africa While Millions Die From Aids There Each Year. (25)

Words Like 'god' And 'allah' Must Go The Way Of 'apollo' And 'baal' Or They Will Unmake Our World.