Consider it: every person you have ever met, every person will suffer the loss of his friends and family. All are going to lose everything they love in this world. Why would one want to...

[I]t is difficult to imagine a set of beliefs more suggestive of mental illness than those that lie at the heart of many of our religious traditions.

What are the chances that we will one day discover that DNA has absolutely nothing to do with inheritance? They are effectively zero.

This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name. The consciousness that animates us is...

There is nothing passive about mindfulness. One might even say that it expresses a specific kind of passion—a passion for discerning what is subjectively real in every moment. It is a mode of cognition that...

My choices matter—and there are paths towards making wiser ones—but I cannot choose what I choose. And if it ever appears that I do—for instance, after going back between two options—I do not choose to...

What I’m asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.

moral” energy opposing abortion than fighting genocide.

The problem with religion, because it’s been sheltered from criticism, is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.

Faith does not offer a strong link between our beliefs and actual states of the world.

In Islam, it is the “moderate” who is left to split hairs,because the basic thrust of the doctrine is undeniable: convert, sub-jugate, or kill unbelievers; kill apostates; and conquer the world.

Are you really surprised by the endurance of religion? What ideology is likely to be more durable than one that conforms, at every turn, to our powers of wishful thinking? Hope is easy; knowledge is...

If there is any kernel of truth in the religions we so deplore,and they are just a carnival of errors,the truth is that it’s possible to sink into the present moment in such a way...

What evidence could possibly be put forward to show that one could have acted differently in the past?

Let me assure you that my intent is not to offend or merely be provocative. I’m simply worried.

One of the most pernicious effects of religion is that it tends to divorce morality from the reality of human and animal suffering. Religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they...

Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious. In fact, ‘atheism’ is a term that should not even exist. No one...

There is a sense in which all cognition can be said to be motivated. One is motivated to understand the world, to be in touch with reality, to remove doubt, etc. Alternately one might say...

The truth, however, is that most Muslims appear to be “fundamental-ist” in the Western sense of the word—in that even “moderate”approaches to Islam generally consider the Koran to be the literal andinerrant word of the...

It is also worth noting that one can obtain a Ph.D. in any branch of science for no other purpose than to make cynical use of scientific language in an effort to rationalize the glaring...

We are all trying to find a path back to the present moment. And good enough reason to just be happy here… Mindfulness meditation is just a trick for doing that. It’s a trick for...

By wearing cosmetics a woman seeks to look younger or more beautiful than she otherwise would. Honesty doesn’t require that she issue a continuous disclaimer: “I see you are looking at my face. Please be...

If faith is what you have to go on, if faith is the link between your beliefs and the world at large, your beliefs are very likely to be wrong. Beliefs can be right or...

There is no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too reasonable.

Losing a belief in free will has not made me fatalistic—in fact, it has increased my feelings of freedom. My hopes, fears, and neuroses seem less personal and indelible. There is no telling how much...

There is no doubt that the United States has much to atone for, both domestically and abroad…To produce this horrible confection at home, start with our genocidal treatment of the Native Americans, add a couple...

adulteresses” throughout the Muslim world. I hope it goes without saying that the Afghan girls who even now are risking their lives by merely learning to read would not be best compensated for their struggles...

We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That’s it. Conversation and violence. And faith is a conversation stopper.

If you’re constantly ruminating about what you just did- or what you should have done- or what you would have done if you only had the chance, you will miss your life. Ok, you will...

Of course, the liar often imagines that he does no harm as long as his lies go undetected.

While believing strongly, without evidence, is considered a mark of madness or stupidity in any other area of our lives, faith in God still holds immense prestige in our society. Religion is the one area...

We have barely emerged from centuries of barbarism. It’s not a surprise that there are shocking inequities in this world. It is hard work to climb down out of the trees and walk upright,and build...

The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a...

120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer.

We must continually remind ourselves that there is a difference between what is natural and what is actually good for us.

Theology is ignorance with wings.

I have no doubt that your acceptance of Christ coincided with some very positive changes in your life. Perhaps you now love other people in a way that you never imagined possible. You may even...

False encouragement is a kind of theft: it steals time, energy, and motivation a person could put toward some other purpose.

The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence.

our moral reasoning is plagued by two illusions. The first illusion can be called the wag-the-dog illusion: We believe that our own moral judgment (the dog) is driven by our own moral reasoning (the tail)....

We read the Golden Rule and judge it to be a brilliant distillation of many of our ethical impulses. And then we come across another of God’s teachings on morality: if a man discovers on...

Faith is the mortar that fills the cracks in the evidence and the gaps in the logic, and thus it is faith that keeps the whole terrible edifice of religious certainty still looming dangerously over...

You can’t take credit for your talents, but it matters that you use them. You can’t really be blamed for your weaknesses, but it matters that you correct them. So pride and shame don’t make...

Man is manifestly not the measure of all things. This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy...

You can do what you decide to do — but you cannot decide what you will decide to do.

I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs.

We rely on faith only in the context of claims for which there is no sufficient sensory or logical evidence.

If our well-being depends upon the interaction between events in our brains and events in the world, and there are better and worse ways to secure it, then some cultures will tend to produce lives...

In the year 2006, a person can have sufficient intellectual and material resources to build a nuclear bomb and still believe that he will get seventy-two virgins in Paradise.

All I’m arguing for really is that we should have a conversation where the best ideas really thrive, where there’s no taboo against criticizing bad ideas, and where everyone who shows up, in order to...