It seems to me that few concepts have offered greater scope for human cruelty than the idea of an immortal soul that stands independent of all materi… - Sam Harris

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 sense of contributing to human happiness in the present.24 Admittedly, the problem of adjudicating what counts as happiness, and which forms of happiness should supersede others, is difficult — but so is every other problem worth thinking about.

IT is no accident that people of faith often want to curtail the private freedoms of others.

Many people renounce the world because they can’t find a satisfactory place in it, and almost any spiritual teaching can be used to justify a pathological lack of ambition. For someone who has not yet succeeded at anything and who probably fears failure, a doctrine that criticizes the search for worldly success can be very appealing. And devotion to a guru — a combination of love, gratitude, awe, and obedience — can facilitate an unhealthy return to childhood.