"(CNN) -- For the world to tackle truly important problems, people have to stop looking to religion to guide their moral compasses, the philosopher Sam Harris told CNN.

"We should be talking about real problems, like nuclear proliferation and genocide and poverty and the crisis in education," Harris said in a recent interview at the TED Conference in Long Beach, California. TED is a nonprofit group dedicated to "ideas worth spreading."

"These are issues which tremendous swings in human well-being depend on. And it's not at the center of our moral concern."

Religion causes people to fixate on issues of less moral importance, said Harris, a well-known secularist, philosopher and neuroscientist who is the author of the books "The End of Faith" and "Letter to a Christian Nation."

"Religion has convinced us that there's something else entirely other than concerns about suffering. There's concerns about what God wants, there's concerns about what's going to happen in the afterlife," he said.

"And, therefore, we talk about things like gay marriage as if it's the greatest problem of the 21st century. We even have a liberal president who ostensibly is against gay marriage because his faith tells him it's an abomination.

"It's completely insane."

Watch Harris' talk at the TED Conference

Harris also said people should not be afraid to declare that certain acts are right and others are wrong. A person who would spill battery acid on a girl for trying to learn to read, for instance, he said, is objectively wrong by scientific standards.

"It's not our job to not judge it and say, 'Well, to each his own. Everyone has to work out their own strategy for human fulfillment.' That's just not true," he said.

"There's people who are wrong about human fulfillment."

Harris placed no faith in the idea that Muslims and Christians will be able to put their differences aside and cooperate on global issues.

"There's no way to reconcile Islam with Christianity," he said. "This difference of opinion admits of compromise as much as a coin toss does."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/2...ris/index.html

Hey! Nothing could be more important than ending the abomination of homosexuality! We can't waste our time with "nuclear proliferation and genocide and poverty" until after we've ended the horror of 'love between people with similar chromosomes'.






I disagree. Moderates of these religions can cooperate just fine; its the fundamentalists that may never be able to get along.

Islam and Christianity actually have MANY similar basic tenets

and

FIXATING on anything is not healthy , regardless of religion.
ITs no more or less acceptable for someone to FIXATE on political issues , like who supports which candidate, than it is to FIXATE on moral issues like homosexuality. It is perfectly unharmful however, to aknowledge and discuss these realities.

I see what you're saying and somewhat agree but we are in a time where there's more extremism than ever. There was a time when the extremists fundies were somewhat neutered on both sides...but after the Dippic was helped into office by moderate thumpers things got worse. They helped sponsor illegal wars on the Muslim's holy grounds have made many of their moderates go extreme...the Christian based US poked the hornet's nest.

I must say im glad im not the only one who says this! It is a very good point directed at the main problems, the moral compass needs to be driven by a clean thought not a book. Especially the gay marriage part its so annoying hearing " against my religion" "abomination" ever heard of separation of church and state ugh. owell, one day, lets hope for the best

hopefully, even those who revere the book, have a moral compass and 'clean thoughts',,, I like to think I do anyhow

the good book reaffirms what my heart already feels..I dont see a reason in the world to 'ditch' it anymore than most americans would 'ditch' the constitution and just live life by their 'clean thoughts'

Well, rational people can say this all day but we have too many who cannot change...I found this condition best described here.

Cognitive dissonance:

"Festinger first developed this theory in the 1950s to explain how members of a cult who were persuaded by their leader, a certain Mrs Keech, that the earth was going to be destroyed on 21st December and that they alone were going to be rescued by aliens, actually increased their commitment to the cult when this did not happen (Festinger himself had infiltrated the cult, and would have been very surprised to meet little green men). The dissonance of the thought of being so stupid was so great that instead they revised their beliefs to meet with obvious facts: that the aliens had, through their concern for the cult, saved the world instead."

http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/cognitive_dissonance.htm

If everyone took God out of everything and just basically forgot about God, this world would truely destroy itself. This world has already fell so far from God, and removing God from what God is still in would be the end of the world.

You've had 60,000+ years of religion to have bought peace...instead it did and still does cause conflict...even if everyone converted to Christianity they'd start fighting each other over petty differences...religion is the fuel for division and conflict.

I don't need a god to know right from wrong...why do you?

without God, we would still argue right and wrong, and every human condition would still exist,,,,bigotry, war, crime,,,,you name it

exactly, without God though we would have more wars and crime. Most people don't know and care about how God works. That feeling strange feeling inside you when you've done something wrong, that's God telling you it was wrong. Or when you know you should do something to help someone but you don't and you feel guilty for not doing as such that is God. God doesn't show his gloriouse face down to earth and tell us what to do, God works on what we call our conscence. That is why some people have a better conscence then other's, because they have let God more into there heart then those others.

Hummmm maybe it is just me but..........I have never figured out why each Religion always seem to want to put another down for what they believe in.

Just let everyone believe within what they want to let them seek out what they want to believe.

Myself I do not believe I have to argue with anyone in what my belief is nor do I feel they must to me.

Sad that we can't accept others for how they choose to live their own lives.

I personally preach the gospel to hopefully open someone's eyes before it's to late. To teach them of God and the glory our father has.

I was just responding to the original quote, above, which is fairly sweeping. In theory, there is a way for members of these religions to compromise and co-operate, and I think it begins with not taking a fundamentalist interpretation of their books so seriously. Just like there gay Christian...in fact, I think in Seattle I saw flyers for entire churches which were Christian and especially supportive of homosexuals. I've known people (at universities) that were raised Muslim and consider themselves Muslim who think that some parts of their 'holy book' is really just superstition, or an unfortunate product of the culture at the time it was created. These kinds of Christians and Muslims are better able to 'get along'.

Declaring that something is possible doesn't mean that I think its going to happen anytime soon. The very real hostility between fundamentalists of both camps, and the incompatibility of the fundamentalists views within both camps is obviously harmful to human beings. The religious beliefs held by some people lead very directly to evil.

Honestly my opinion on that is when others have it shoved down their throat they are most likely to bale out and go the opposite direction.

Of course, but that doesn't change the fact that some forms of religion tremendously contribute to these problems. I believe you are using the 'nirvana fallacy' here.

The question is not 'would eliminating fundamentalism immediately create a perfect world', a better question is 'would eliminating fundamentalism improve the world' or 'would eliminating fundamentalism help set the stage for improvement in the world.'

IMO, extreme nationalism poses just as much of a threat as extreme religiosity. Racism continues to huge contributor to these problems.

Im always in favor of balance as opposed to extremes. I would not consider giving up my faith or religion but I can understand the desire for extremism to end.

My sole problem with religions is their extreme ignorance of logic and what can be possible. I don't even mean in the empirical way, like the Virgin Birth, but in the a priori way, like the impossibility of 1 = 3. And all religions are replete with these incredibly stupid, absolutely impossible untruths.

A little of the stupidity goes to Sam Harris as well. The problems he mentions are all dwarved by the overpopulation problem. Guns don't kill people, people kill with guns. If there are few enough people in the world, nobody would bother detonating a nuclear device. If there are too many people, some won't have food, some won't have energy, some won't have water, and most won't have any of these. So they will take to arms. And even if they reduce the number of humans, still it won't be guaranteed that the supplies will be forever renewed, since some supplies can be depleted without any chance of their renewal, like fissionable material. If we used too much Uranium or Plutonium, or whatnot, never mind just oil, then even if there would be only 2 million people living on earth, they would still die or else live miserable lives because of the cold, of he predators, or whatever.

So any of the problems we face such as genocide and poverty and education, are child's play compared to the -- and here comes the REAL community moral to detach itself from religion and to make man do things that are morally really tough, but have to be done for the survival of his own species -- fact that sooner or later the time is going to come when we need to reduce our numbers forcibly and without mercy for the individual, be it a man, woman or child.

THAT is where the new morality will be playing hard balls with religion and our own personal hard-wired ethics.

Once people realize that religions do not govern morality and to be religious makes one no more moral than to not be, we will all be truly equal and therefore religion will not be such a problem in this world.

As long as the belief that religion is the "better" way to live and makes one "a better" person and improves lives, fixes issues, etc.... we will continue to be berated by these individuals who feel superior, act with "justified" hatred, live a hypocrisy, trying to impose their skewed views on everyone as if it is right, etc....

This guy should get a Darwin of the year award.If he had the slightest idea how our Government works he would know nothing the Government is not dictated by the rules of the bible.The Government does not govern people by reading bible verse to them.It doesn't punish people for breaking rules of the bible nor does it enforce bible laws.The Churches don't run this country.The Government runs this country.If you have a problem with the way this country is being run are you going to go to the priest of the church and tell him to change our Government policy?

Proliferation-"The continuous development of cells in tissue formation; cell formation".What this has to do with anything I have no idea.

Genocide-Normally produced by moraless Atheist.Nearly always stopped by Christian nations.The Spanish Inquisition is ballyhooed as the high point of human wickedness.The Great Leap Forward and the Holocaust,both caused by atheists,resulted in 43 million and 6 million deaths respectively,whereas the Spanish Inquisition resulted in 3,230 deaths in three and a half centuries. And then,in the single year of 1936,Spanish atheists murdered 6,832 members of the Catholic clergy -- "more than twice the number of the victims of 345 years of inquisition." Summing up,52 atheist rulers in the 20th century, from 1917 to 2007, were responsible for a body count of around 148 million dead.


Poverty-Christian churches all over the United states and the world feed the hungry.The Red cross was started as a Christian origination.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/tsunami.christian.west.are.biggest.givers/1960-3.htm

Of the top 43 non-profit agencies in the U.S. that have signed up to receive funds for the relief effort, the majority are driven by evangelical faith and fervor not only for gospel proclamation but doing good "unto the least of these."

World Vision International and the Salvation Army are among the biggest.Both organizations are running billion dollar budgets. Add to them evangelically driven organizations like World Concern, Project HOPE, Mercy Corp, Lutheran World Relief, Food for the Hungry, Relief International, World Concern, Baptist World Aid, Barnabas Ministries, Brothers Brother, Christian Children's Fund, a variety of medical sending agencies and many more, and you have your answer.


I could not find a single non-profit organization formed by atheists that feed to poor or to help those in need.


Harris is a total fool.Christians and Christian originations are the lighthouse of this world.The help more people with more problems than anyone else in this world.If all the Christians were to become Atheist overnight there is no doubt in anyone's mind this world would turn into a blood thirsty,anything goes,land of chaos.



In 2007 Islam and Judaism's holiest holidays overlapped for 10 days.
Islamic Muslims racked up 397 dead bodies in 94 terror attacks across 10 countries during this time... while Jews worked on their 159th Nobel Peace Prize.


One day the Christians will be gone and you will be left with this.


Mic 7:2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

"I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.

"And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'" (Revelation 6:12-17).


Revelation 8
7
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
8
The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood,
9
a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10
The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water--
11
the name of the star is Wormwood.[1] A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.