My concern with religion is that it allows us by the millions to believe what only lunatics or idiots could believe on their own. That's not to say that all religious people are lunatics or idiots. It's anything but that.
Interpretation
The quote critiques religion for enabling irrational beliefs among many people.
Sam Harris expresses concern that religion can lead large numbers of people to adopt beliefs that, without the influence of faith, would seem irrational or nonsensical. He clarifies that this does not imply that all religious individuals are irrational; instead, he suggests that dogmatic belief systems can foster uncritical thinking on a massive scale, allowing ideas that would otherwise be rejected to thrive.
In practice
This quote can be used in a debate about the role of religion in society.
Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person's thoughts.
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.
The core of science is not a mathematical modeling--it is intellectual honesty. It is a willingness to have our certainties about the world constrained by good evidence and good argument.
It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.
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.
It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.
Words form the thread on which we string our experiences.
Facts mean little compared to attitudes. To contradict rumor or sentiment is as futile as arguing against a believer's faith in the Immaculate Conception. You have simply become a victim of faith, Comrade Assistant.
It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.
Man who man would be, must rule the empire of himself.
Justice is the insurance which we have on our lives and property. Obedience is the premium which we pay for it.
I don't want to be labeled as either a pansy or a heterosexual. Labeling is so self-limiting. We are what we do - not what we say we are.
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