The Problem Of Human Suffering Is Never

From My Point Of View, Compatibilism Is A Little Like Saying: A Puppet Is Free So Long As It Loves Its Strings.

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.

Unreason Is Now Ascendant In The United States - In Our Schools, In Our Courts, And In Each Branch Of The Federal Government. Only 28 Percent Of Americans Believe In Evolution; 68 Percent Believe In Satan. Ignorance In This Degree, Concentrated In Both The Head And Belly Of A Lumbering Superpower, Is Now A Problem For The Entire World.

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.

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.