Religious faith is the one species of human ignorance that will not admit of even the possibility of correction.

[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.

By lying, we deny others a view of the world as it is. Our dishonesty not only influences the choices they make, it often determines the choices they can make—and in ways we cannot always predict. Every lie is a direct assault upon the autonomy of those we lie to.

Unlike statements of fact, which require no further work on our part, lies must be continually protected from collisions with reality.

It is still fashionable to believe that how you organize yourself religiously in this life may matter for eternity. Unless we can erode the prestige of that kind of thinking, we're not going to be able to undermine these divisions in our world.

The truth is that we simply do not know what happens after death.

Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches.