Philosopher: Why we should ditch religion

(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."

but why dont you do any of the above? what conditioned you to know that those things are "bad"? parents? society norms? moral studies? books? movies? or others? and where do those get the idea that the things listed are bad?

ooo contradictions. 60% of heteros have anal sex. how many % of that are religious? lol.
unprotected/promiscuous sex... hmmm, which human law controls these acts if not the good practice of religion?
back to the birth of the universe, we have no answers. i've already said they're theories. all we have is something, but without an explanation. when will science provide full-proof evidence of it?
i am merely a scholar whom relates science, religion and politics. it's a fact that people are leaning more towards science instead of religion. more and more think religion isn't something required anymore. but i theorised that people will fall back on it in the end eventually.
the belief in a supreme being is also theory. just  like science, theories are ready to cross over to being facts. but such a far-fetched theory is impossible to be a fact. and just like many theories, it is only logical to believe that it took more than just pure coincidence of how the universe was born.
i also believe in newton's third law. balance. for every extremist out there, there are the peaceful and humble. but all we see on tv are violence coz peace is just so boring to watch.

I don't do any of the above cause it harms people.
Not because of parents, society norms, moral studies, books, movies or any others.
I do it because it comes naturally to me. It is in our nature.

A study was conducted recently on how a religious mind and non-religious mind reacts to a certain moral situation.
The results show that 90% of the people had the same answer.
Why do we need a book to tell us how to lead our lives when our basic human instincts are sufficient?

P/s: Morality came before religion.

i doubt it, i believe the book "lord of the flies" is a rather honest interpretation on a very possible outcome of a group of individual in the absence of guidance. note, i say "very possible" not "inevitable". while certain group of people may be civilized enough to do "good" (or as i like to label it, act selflessly in the grander view of society) most are still guided by their more reptilian instinct to do "bad" (or as i like to label it, act selfishly to benefit the individual regardless of the losses faced by others)

while you conveniently divided into religious/non-religious minds, you have to realize that there is no such demarcation available in society. "do not steal" "do not kill" - is that a product of civilization or of religion, it is impossible to separate which part of our society values is due to religion and which part is not. to you, not killing may be as obvious as day, but in ancient times before such "kind" religion are practiced, it is not so obvious.

when you so boldly say that religion offer nothing to society, you are doing it a great injustice, when it did offer much and still have a role to play. i would say that the role of religion is diminished, but not unneeded.

in lord of the flies the kids become wild because they arrive at a place with no authority that enforce law and order, they did not become atheist and turn to violence due to godlessness. like how people turn to looting after earthquake in Chile when the police force are ineffective, but soon when order is restore, many of the looted items are returned during an amnesty period. the people of Chile does not become more religions and thus return the stolen good, they return it when law and order are restored.

alturism is not product of either civilization or religion, even insect have alturist society like ant colony.

A massive death/destruction and suffering befall the world where billions of people are wiped out.
Yet, no signs of
1. Jesus.
2. Imam Mahdi.
3. Buddha or other reincarnated buddhist legends.

Or any signs of 'GOD' saving humanity from the suffering/death.
What will happen to all those people who believed externally in a saviour, a messiah, god ?
Will people still hold on, believe their religion/god or whatever?

How many deaths/suffering must happen to wake humanity up that there is no messiah/god as they know it ?
If this is the solution to the world's problems, would it be worth it to have a huge massive kill off to wake up humanity ?

Will it end religion?

People will always believe in religion regardless of what happen. If they do not worship a diety the will worship things or other people. That is the amazing the about human. Perhaps you should question why people had the tendency to worship.

Increasing numbers of deaths/sudden deaths IS one of the sign.
Well, you cannot see the signs, because you are blinded.
By worldly pleasures....
Why care too much? Just enjoy, no?
May you find the Light....
and saved from the New Worldly Order....