Why Organized Religion Undermines Morality 

"Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool". Mark Twain

Christopher Hitchens said religion Poisons everything and I agree.

If you need a book to tell you that murder is wrong because you don’t have enough sense to figure it out on your own, then you are one sorry human being.

The only reason some people think you can't get morality without religion is simply because that's what their preachers hammered into their head and they just cannot imagine it being any other way. Just pure narrow-mindedness.

When religious folks tell children, let alone adults their going to hell if the don't accept Jesus or whatever. That's downright evil and sadistic. I was desperate and morality corrupt to believe in the Christian bible. It was one of those, 'What the hell was I thinking.' For letting myself believe in those people. Being a Christian, was the worst I ever felt about myself. Never again!

If anybody thinks religion keeps people moral. I'd like to refer them to what is happening in Israel. What is happening throughout the middle East. United States which has a strong Christian population and one of the highest crime levels on the planet. And then Scandinavian countries which are higher levels of agnostic / atheism and low crime rate and reoffending rates and some of the nicest prisons in the world. This goes for all countries throughout history the lower the religious fanaticism the lower the violence in crime. And vice versa

I don't need to be governed by laws to know what I should or shouldn't do.

We all know what is right and wrong automatically. Just put yourself in the other person's shoes.

Yes it is innate, just as Hitchens says. A child of 6 knows right from wrong.

I believed in a GOD until I read the Bible, I then became an Atheist! I now feel indebted and can only thank those that actually wrote the Bible, for putting me strait and showing me the error of my ways.

"Why am I not Religious?" "Because I'm not self centered"

I've made peace with the fact I'm a primate descended native of planet earth. I don't need some devine / extraterrestrial origin to make me happy or to make me feel special. I simply don't neet the saftey net full of holes that is religion to give me a sense of meaning in the absence of it.

Morality and ethics stem from evolutionary awareness and understanding. Without these it cannot exist at all..

I knew a guy who thought his belief in god made him better than other people.

I look forward to every new video; please never stop making these!

Obedience and fear are not empathy...

Wonder why dinosaurs were not mentioned in the bible. The Mayans, the Peruvians, Egyptian pyramids... the earliest civilizations. So much was left out.

Oprah. No thanks.

So funny that I can say I don't want to rape because that's a terrible thing to do to someone, and the apologist will say that he doesn't rape because he's afraid of punishment from a higher power, and they use that contrast to conclude that they have the superior morality. I do what's right because it's right, they do what's right to avoid pain, and they're better than me. Okay, sure.

If you base right on wrong on a book and not on empathy and compassion you're a monster

When your school of thought offers eternal torture if you leave the class. You are selling something very evil

I think this is the interview when Dan and Anne met. ✌️❤️

I don’t see any evidence that being religious stops anyone from following their own agenda. How can it be true that people need religion to be moral, when religious people fill our jails? With or without religion, people follow their own path, good people will be kind & the greedy will be selfish.

I could easily lay down 50 pages here on the oddities, contradictions, inconsistencies, scientific impossibilities and absurdities, etc., of the major religions and their foundational tomes. Instead: "A God that shows no effect in the world can be entirely and safely ignored."

The world holds two classes of men; " Intelligent men without religion," and "Religious men without intelligence."

I finished Cristopher Hitchens “mortality” and it was beautiful. Please give it a read. Under 100 pages.

This is an excellent video! I shared it on my Facebook page. Thank you!

What happened to the guy who murdered people in the village before religion existed? They either killed him, or sent him packing and banned him from the village. Mammals are social animals. They regulate this kind of behavior on their own. If they needed a book to tell them killing is bad, they would've gone extinct long ago.

"In his famous dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro, a philosophical quandary is posed thusly: *“Is what is morally good commanded by God because it is morally good, or is it morally good because it is commanded by God?” Known as the Euthyphro Dilemma, the problem boils down to this:* ***If something is morally good simply because it is commanded by God, then morality is arbitrary. God could decide tomorrow that murder and rape are morally acceptable, and voilà, it would be.*** *On the other hand, if God commands what is already morally good, then morality exists independently of God. He is not the source or creator of morality, not the one who determines right from wrong, but merely one who dispenses a system of ethics that transcends his own authority.* In response, theists attempt to wiggle their way out of the dilemma by suggesting that God’s very nature, or character, is good, so that he would never condone such wicked acts as rape or murder. But then all one has to do is reformulate the question, à la philosopher Michael Martin: “Is God’s character the way it is because it is good, or is God’s character good simply because it is God’s character?” The dilemma stands, as God’s character remains subject to an external definition of what is moral or good. *Why is this? It’s because morality is an abstraction, or social contract, produced collectively by sentient beings, and to which all sentient beings are subject. And it’s something that naturally arises on a pragmatic basis for the sake of order and harmony within any civilized society. God, therefore, is neither the source of morality, nor a necessary explanation for its existence.* *But imagine for a moment the sheer absurdity of suggesting that the biblical God is the supreme author of morality.* A God who demands the extermination of men, women, and children (1 Sam. 15:1-3), who delights in the retaliatory act of seizing infants and dashing them against rocks (Ps. 137:8-9), of raping the wives of Israel’s enemies (Is. 13:16), even orchestrating the brutal death of dozens of children by savage bears, merely for having mocked one of his prophets (2 Kgs. 2:23-24). *This is a ferociously partisan, bloodthirsty, and vengeful deity, not one bound by any high-minded or all-encompassing moral code.* Theists will typically defend such verses in one of three ways: 1) by suggesting that “those were different times,” thus invoking moral relativism and destroying their own case for an objective morality stemming from God; 2) by appealing to context, of which there simply isn’t any to justify the depravity above; and 3) by pleading, “that was the Old Testament,” or, “Jesus changed all that,” tacitly admitting that the God they ostensibly worship was once horrible and in need of change, which further contradicts any claims to the immutable and unchanging character of God (e.g., Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8; Jm. 1:17). *Suffice it to say, neither God nor the Bible serve as the basis for morality."* *"Is God Necessary for Morality? | atheologica"* --------------------------------------------------------- Also look up: *"God is the Source of Morality. (Not.) | atheologica"* *"Morals Don't Come From God: For This I Know Because the Bible Tells Me So"* - Dr Steven DiMattei. *"Secular Societies Fare Better Than Religious Societies | Psychology Today"*

Why believe in unproven, extraordinary tales that are not just proven false, contradictory, inconsistent, but also immoral?

Religion is the best snake oil sale in human history!

All of these thinkers are a treasure to listen to, but Hitch stands at the top!!

superstition - noun 1a: a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation b: an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from superstition 2: a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary Merriam-Webster

Religion is essential for psychopaths and others who say they would cause murder and mayhem without it. That's only a minority of people, but I would not like to see religion die out completely.

Religion is man made where ONE individual claims only he knows God and you must come to him but one’s beliefs in God is an individual choice. So believe or don’t.

*Thousands of years ago long before Jesus, it is the "Sun" which is rebirthed in a passageway of an ancient tomb [The Grand Passage Tomb].* *Let the Sunshine In...* thanks

Some people like to be control hard to belive.

It's always been ridiculous that religious people think that atheism creates bad people as if all the bad things that are done in the world are done by people without religion. In fact some of the worst things to have ever been done in human history are centered around religion. Atheists tend to believe in being a good person just for the sake of being a good person, because being a bad person makes life hard. Religious people are telling you that without religion they would be awful people because they would have no promise of reward for being good. And that explains quite a bit about why the most heinous acts committed by humans have been done in the name of religion. When people believe that bad deeds are good if they're done out of faith and that they'll be forgiven if they repent they're capable of some terrible shit

Organized religion is hierarchical, i.e., based on a top-down power structure. When doctrine became more important than human lives, the power mongers took the God business to the dark side by using immoral behavior to punish rule breakers. When self-righteous minds wish to punish their enemies, cruelty and revenge becomes the message of choice.

Tak for de her videoer min ven

The idea that religion is somehow necessary for morality is laughably stupid and offensive. Morality comes from empathy.

All gods, all religions, all "holy" texts are the creations of mankind.

"There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do." -- John Steinbeck

It's good to know the truth. An amazing insight in life. I feel sorry for the deluded masses.

Anne and Dan are a beautiful couple.

It is evil for a god or for anyone else to force someone into the type of existence that they might hate to exist in.

I am an atheist and I dont even like to think of rape, murder, abuse or even imposing upon another human being or animal. I feel guilt for being an omnivore. Living off other thinking and feeling creatures. This idea that without the horid morality of religion everyone would be amoral monsters is a symptom of an incredibly sick dynamic. To convince that we are beings born sick and would devolve into horrific acts without a morality that supports slavery and genocide. Even putting the immoral morality of religion aside, it tells its adherents that they are less moral by nature than animals who kill to eat. That they, without the word of their imaginary friend would do horrible things like rape, murder, genocide and slavery. It is absolutely hypocritical for a faith to do this. Without the massive indoctrinal techniques learned over millennia, no one would be able to believe this. And worst of all the pandemic of unresolved trauma and indoctrinational trauma that opens the minds of people to this truly sick distortion of reality.

Good compilation. Thanks 🙂

Im accountable for my own actions. Im not allowed to give the Nuremberg defense: just following (god’s) orders. I have no one to blame for the consequences of my decisions but myself.

I used to be an atheist. I still am but I used to be too. RIP Mitch Hedberg.

The funniest thing about Christianity is it acts as though it has a lock on morality and generosity.

I keep on coming back to atheist arguments hoping to find hard-hitting points that will make me question whether or not my new Christian beliefs are founded properly. Time and time again I find myself disappointed, atheism is utterly uncompelling, and I can’t believe it took me a decade to realize it. All I ever find are strawman arguments or grabbing the weakest evangelical Bible thumping arguments along with some charismatic rhetoric from Harris or Hitchens my old time heroes. Truth, love, and life come from an author that I have fallen in love with, Christus Rex.

Great video thanks

Objective morality is completely useless anyways, unless there's a way to convince everyone about that The moment two people disagree than the objective morality is no different than the subjective one. Well I guess that the subjective one allows for some compromise

First of all human have emotions so the evil that is coming from the human's deed itself

Why was the og taken down?

Look at the young dan barker

We evolved as a *social species* so social skills are an innate and instinctual part of our species.

MOST normal people know right from wrong YES, OTHERS need to be told the difference by their so called gods HOW worrying is that.

Neitzsche said, "God is dead-we have buried Him." Sam Harris, RichRd Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens say, "God is dead, Scince had buried Him." Either way, humanity is now freed from the tyranny of a mulythical non-existant punisher of evil deeds, and no standards exists above those standards humans, and humans alone, choose. Humanity is now the ultimate arbiter of morality. Every society is free to design and enforce its own codes of what is and is not acceptable. Each society is now free from any standard of ethics based on Imago Dei, a fanciful notion that leaders have any need to respect the sovereignty or sanctity of individuals. For humanity to advance, the wasteful expenditures of individuals on consumer goods simply because a good is desirable has led humanity to damaging rhe environment to its breaking point. For humanity to advance, humans must be forced to be responsible for their carbon emissions, waste generation, and have thrir number of offspring curtailed by governments rather than let any couple simply decide that tbey want, to have more than two children. China is now the shining example of the future of humanity without any God or gods. Their leaders understand that the State is wiser than the emotional drives or desires of its individual mrmbers. The State is now freed from any standards of right and wrong, good and evil , which were formerly attached to the sanctity of the individual by some sort of "being created Equal by a God," by thinkers during the Emlightenment How ridiculous. Every society is now free to define what works best for itself. It is clear that the radical individual freedom of "persons" which the concept of Imago Dei, and free market capitalism only leads to induvidual poverty, homelessness, individuals free to refuse treatment for substance abuse or multi- drug resistant TB, crime, trash -strewn streets, graffitti in Railway terminals. The path forward is the end of this freedom for the greater good of all. The religious must be segregated, re-educated, or used as organ donors for those in need, as the Falun Gong are, if they will not give up their subversive beliefs in human worth assignned by a god, not by society. The Enlightenment is over. The true path of a humanity liberated from old standards of right and wrong is the only path forward.

No, they want OTHERS to think they're good people, and be included by the community. It's mostly about being included and not ostracized, be left outside alone.

Easy, one word CULTS!

Please lose the camera shutter sound effects. It's incredibly annoying. TV shows and movies don't play a sound effect every time there's a cut. RU-vidrs shouldn't either.

Biochemistry determines human nature. Psychology understands human nature.

It is actually the opposite. It is morals without the bible that is detested by "endorsing of slavery" or "endorsing genocide", someone who is immoral will think that is okay to do

thanks to religions, we still point to other religions and say you are living a lie. so if one says that to the other, wouldnt the other turn around n tell you the exact same thing !!

Would God create a man that wouldn't become a spirit? Strange for God to change instead of improve lives

Listen to UG Krishnamurti

I wouldn't kill, or rape, but i would be proud of myself and not be interested in getting married. Actually I'm not interested in getting married anyway and never have been. I do prefer the belief that God exist over not existing. But that's mainly because i don't except it as a comforting thought that this life is all there is, and i don't believe anyone knows that is the case.

Stoning is approved by the religious; commandments glorify an idol called god. You would not want to live in those times- we are more liberated now than ever, because of the founding fathers.

"IN HIS MONOTHEIST SCRIPTURE WHICH HAS THOUSANDS OF VERSES, THERE IS ANOTHER EVIL GOD, WHO IS HIDING, BUT ALSO INSERTS AND ALSO PARTICIPATE IN "WRITING" THE VERSES !?

I'm neither religious nor an atheist. Morality is inate. It's just woven into us regardless of religious influence

Funny how God made these 10 commandments on a stone that evidently fell apart,evaporated or something.? What was he or she or it thinking. This god created all the elements. 😂

Your never gonna see a monkey kill another monkey and feel bad about it, you won't see a bear kill another Bear and cry about it no animal is gonna do that ever. The reason it feels wrong to us is because it was inbelt in us not to do those bad things not because of evolved morality coz if that was the case what monkey could have done a bad thing and thought "man that was awful" and maybe he told his other monkey friends not to do bad things and they said "yeah let's be good monkeys now" now the whole world thinks it's bad to steal. Otherwise no man defined what's good and bad because it never existed in the first place and it doesn't just pop up in someone's head all the sudden because it's not natural. For someone to truly define good and evil they have to be intelligent to know the consequences of good and evil on people, they have to be sentient, have to love to know what it even means to care for someone and by that it God. Who else other than God

📍9:04

Oprah is not the smartest one in the room in this one. LOL

UH OH The Problem Atheists have is, They Unnecessarily Overcomplicate it God is simply the Existence of Love. Everybody Believes Love exists Simple. But infinite in Power and Expression. To ignore the Reality of that Is not only Unfortunate It’s Shameful

Wow

I love God for the tax-free business empires he created.

Im bout sick of these mind readerz how yall know i had jus thought of bishop don magic juan

How often do you advocate being compassionate and helping others on your huge platform? I doubt ever. At least some religion does

In england to get into school you had to be religious.

Sam Harris 😂😂😂.. Hilarious ly RIGHT

"Because I would kill you, without the moral restrain of the bible he said, I would be a wild animal raping, rent, killing, stealing, murdering, thanks God for the bible who restrains me morally. And Operah says: there is a lot of people who would do that, there is a lot of people who would be that way had they not the bible to tell them not to do it" I think not to do certain things is just common sense, wisdom, knowledge, experience, not necessarily from the bible.

But - WHY then - if not someone quite excellent - MAN has the ability to Understand anything in His Garden - already very very intelligent

Give us examples of how organized religion undermines morality. You can't - because no such thing occurs. The only thing which undermines morality is making incorrect choices, and then acting upon them. Religious teachings are just fine. What is NOT so fine is acting out against those religious teachings.

All of Abraham's children need to GRASP their HOLY BOOKS from the Spiritual pov or these conflicts will NEVER EVER EVER STOP and Abraham's descendants (ALL OF THEM ) will continue to be a curse in the earth instead of a LIGHT for the world: I wish I could exclude Christianity from this curse but they are not exempt from it because of how they may believe in Jesus but most Christians today still do not yet "KNOW" in whom they believe. Jews don't have the Holy Spirit (only David ever had the Holy Spirit which is what the CHOSEN are given to understand the Bible from a spiritual POV): It says no one can say Jesus is Lord but by the HOLY SPIRIT: Why? Because Jesus is born when the ANOINTING (Christ) is born through the heart by the Holy Spirit: Jesus then never was a person born through sex but the SEED OF GOD (HASHEM) which is a SPIRITUAL SEED, is born through the heart (Mark 4 the parable of all parables, explains this along with John 16, showing that the woman (heart) gives birth to Christ, not the sexual part of female: Here is why a male can give birth to Christ through the good part of their heart as much as a female sexually, because the SOUL is neither male or female. This is also why "virgin" is a metaphor of the heart (desire) that is able to bring the anointing into the world, the 30 fold (Mark 4) which is the LETTER LAMED =teacher that brings us above the line ): Virgin has nothing to do with a sexual virgin and this is true for those poor Muslims that give their lives to get 70 virgins, but that's another story: The GOOD GROUND of the heart is the virgin ground of being that is able to bring forth the SEED of the woman (Israel) through Judah (praise of Yah) because Praise is PERFECTED in the mouth of babes (David was the YOUNGEST of Jesse's children) and a CHILD shall lead the soul back to God/Hashem. Having said all this for 31 years, only those who also EXPERIENCE the HOLY SPIRIT grasp it: Jews don't grasp Jesus or Torah as a tree of life because they don't have the HOLY SPIRIT, the ANOINTING (Christ) that reveals the truth that sets us FREE. Even the most intelligent Jews and Christians too, don't understand or "KNOW" Jesus until the baptism into the Holy Spirit which is baptism into Jesus name. The most intelligent people from all religions or atheism, get Jesus wrong because they can't wrap their mind around the meaning of "MAN" in the Bible, not grasping that males are animate but MAN is the IMAGE and LIKENESS of God and deals with the soul, not the sexual physical part of us. : Without the HOLY Spirit it is impossible to understand the Bible period: Moses for instance is a CODE NAME (drawn from the water) which is the subconscious, the sea that splits open in us when the SOUL escapes from the ego or identity with our first born status, our physical self and mind. Moses then is the CONSCIENCE that comes out of Israel when they are so overwhelmed by being slaves to the ego (EGYPT) that they can't take it anymore and MOSES appears to take them out of the EGO (EGYPT): The conscience however doesn't get it completely right in that it doesn't FULLY GRASP how to teach the SOUL HOW TO SPEAK to the rock (that gives the LIVING WATER or anointing) but instead it does what Jews have been doing since they lost Moses (their conscience) which is get angry at those (including one another) who can't bring the LIVING WATER out of the rock: HASHEM (GOD) told their conscience, SPEAK to the rock to get the living water: SPEAKING is prophesying which Moses said HE WISHED ALL ISRAEL WOULD DO: WHY? Because then they would GET THE ANOINTING from the rock (Christ ) that was with Israel in the wilderness: So HASHEM said to the conscience of Israel and is still saying it today, YOU DID NOT SANTIFY MY NAME IN THE FACE OF THIS PEOPLE. So Moses, you die and are buried on Mt NEBO (means PROPHET) so when you are resurrected by the ONE WHO DOES SPEAK THE WORD to raise the dead which is you (the conscience) and Elijah (the DESIRE FOR MESSIAH or the anointing, also law and prophets) YOU WILL DO what you should have done when I told you to do it: SPEAK to the rock, YOU will then prophesy to the DEAD BONES OF THE WHOLE HOUSE OF ISRAEL and the VALLEY shall be exalted while the mountain (EGO) shall be laid low, as the crooked (serpent, will) is made straight::

Atheism does not condemn murder, rape or slavery.

Religion is essential in this world because it instills a fear of punishment. Were it not for the fear of divine punishment, then I would be nasty to others because presently there is no benefit in being kind to others. Kindness is weakness in an atheist world of the selfish gene and survival of the fittest.

Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but thru Him. Repent everyone of you and be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins and the promise of Eternal Life. And this promise is for ALL, both Jew and Gentile, and started with the first Gentile Abram from UR of the Chaldeans, and later became Abraham. And the promise continues with Jacob whom God called Israel. My friends the scriptures are clear that this promise is for ALL who will believe. For God so love the world that He gave His one and only Son, that WHOEVER believes on Him will not perish but have Everlasting Life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that thru Him the world might be saved. Praise Yeshua Hamashiach, our Great God & Savior!!! Come quickly Lord Jesus, AMEN

But you are still a crybaby!😂

-"He that is SPIRITUAL will understand ALL THINGS. For we all are of the Spirit". The FLESH profited not. -"The FOOL hath said in his HEART, there is no God" ATHEIST simpletons will not go beyond reason. Their reason is not LIFE/CONSCIENESS but death and science so*called . Shalawam, Qam Yasharhla. May TMH be praised.