the greatest problem confronting civilization is not merely religious extremism: rather, it is the larger set of cultural and intellectual accommodat… - Sam Harris

The problem is not that religious people are stupid. It's not that religious fundamentalists are stupid. I happen to think that you can be so well educated that you can build a nuclear bomb, and still get — and still believe that you will get the 72 virgins in paradise — that is the problem. The problem is that — religion — because it has been sheltered from criticism as it has been — allows people — perfectly sane, perfectly intelligent people — to believe en masse, what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.

I am often asked what will replace organized religion. The answer, I believe, is nothing and everything. Nothing need replace its ludicrous and divisive doctrines — such as the idea that Jesus will return to earth and hurl unbelievers into a lake of fire, or that death in defense of Islam is the highest good. These are terrifying and debasing fictions. But what about love, compassion, moral goodness, and self-transcendence? Many people still imagine that religion is the true repository of these virtues. To change this, we must talk about the full range of human experience in a way that is as free of dogma as the best science already is.

It is simply astonishing how people destroy their marriages, careers, and reputations by saying one thing and doing another.