It Is Time We Admitted

We Do Not Respect People's Beliefs, We Evaluate Their Reasons. If My Reasons Are Good Enough For Believing What I Believe, You Will Helplessly Believe What I Believe. I Will Give You My Reasons And Reasons Are Contagious. That Is What It Is To Be A Rational Human Being.

Mahavira, The Jain Patriarch, Surpassed The Morality Of The Bible With A Single Sentence: Do Not Injure, Abuse, Oppress, Enslave, Insult, Torment, Torture, Or Kill Any Creature Or Living Being. Imagine How Different Our World Might Be If The Bible Contained This As Its Central Precept.

Faith Enables Many Of Us To Endure Life's Difficulties With An Equanimity That Would Be Scarcely Conceivable In A World Lit Only By Reason.

It Is Terrible That We All Die And Lose Everything We Love; It Is Doubly Terrible That So Many Human Beings Suffer Needlessly While Alive. That So Much Of This Suffering Can Be Directly Attributed To Religion—to Religious Hatreds, Religious Wars, Religious Delusions And Religious Diversions Of Scarce Resources—is What Makes Atheism A Moral And Intellectual Necessity.

It Is Time That Scientists And Other Public Intellectuals Observed That The Contest Between Faith And Reason Is Zero-sum.