People who harbor strong convictions without evidence belong at the margins of our societies, not in our halls of power.

While religious tolerance is surely better than religious war, tolerance is not without its liabilities. Our fear of provoking religious hatred has rendered us incapable of criticizing ideas that are now patently absurd and increasingly maladaptive.

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.

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.

Ignorance in this degree, concentrated in both the head and belly of a lumbering superpower, is now a problem for the entire world.

It is also true that the less competent a person is in a given domain, the more he will tend to overestimate his abilities. This often produces an ugly marriage of confidence and ignorance that is very difficult to correct for.

As an atheist, I am angry that we live in a society in which the plain truth cannot be spoken without offending 90% of the population.