FAITH. No one word personifies the absolute worst and most wicked properties of religion better than that. Faith is mind-rot. Itโs the poison that destroys critical thinking, undermines evidence, and leads people into lives dedicated to absurdity. Itโs a parasite regarded as a virtue. I speak as a representative of the scientific faction of atheism: itโs one thing we simply cannot compromise on. Faith is wrong.
PZ MyersScience is not infallible, but it has something religion lacks: a process of testing claims against real-world observations.
PZ MyersRational people have better things to do than grant unwarranted credibility to every half-assed delusion.
PZ MyersMost of what happens in the world is just a consequence of natural, universal laws- laws that apply everywhere and to everything, with no special exemptions or amplifications for your benefit- given variety by the input of chance. Everything that you as a human being consider cosmically important is an accident.
PZ MyersWe godless lack that certainty, and we know the world is a complex place that requires compromise and is not ruled by a moral force - virtue is subject to negotiation, and is found in working together with others to find mutually satisfactory solutions. Good is not absolute, it is an emergent property that arises from successful networks of individuals. It is also something that is measured by evidence: we look at the good that people do, not the promises that they make and never keep, or the lies that dovetail nicely into dogma. Competence is a virtue. Intent is meaningless without action.
PZ Myers