Faith drives a wedge between ethics and suffering. Where certain actions cause no suffering at all, religious dogmatists still maintain that they are evil and worthy of punishment. . . . And yet, where suffering and death are found in abundance their causes are often deemed to be good. . . . This inversion of priorities not only victimizes innocent people and squanders scarce resources; it completely falsifies our ethics.

It is utterly astonishing how ordinary a book can be and still be thought the product of omniscience.

To not believe in God is to know that it falls to us to make the world a better place.

The atheist, by merely being in touch with reality, appears shamefully out of touch with the fantasy life of his neighbors.

The faith of religion is belief on insufficient evidence.

It is time we admitted that we are not at war with “terrorism.” We are at war with Islam.

The problem I want to talk to you about tonight is the problem of belief. What does it mean to believe? We use this word all the time, and I think behind it lurk some really extraordinary taboos and confusions. What I want to argue tonight is that how we talk about belief- how we fail to criticize or criticize the beliefs of others, has more importance to us personally, more consequence to us personally and to civilization than perhaps anything else that is in our power to influence.