I want to return to this core issue which
is belief, because that really is the issue.
Without belief, religion evaporates.
Without belief, science evaporates.
We're talking about claims and their evidence.
And we're taliking about what you think is true
about the nature of the universe.
Presumably don't believe in Zeus.
If someone stood here and said
Zeus was the greatest scientist,
you would not have applauded.
Let's talk honestly about
what we think is true.
A truth is that religion, as we speak of it
(Islam, Christianity, Judaism)
is based on the claim that
God dictates certain books.
He doesn't code software,
He doesn't produce films,
He doesn't score symphonies.
He is an author.
And this claim has achieved credibility, because
these books are deemed so profound that they could
not possibly have been written by human authors.
Please consider for a moment how differently we
treat scientific claims, texts and  discoveries.
Isaac Newton went into isolation for 18 months,
starting [in] the year 1665.
When he came out of his solitude,
he had invented the calculus,
he discovered the laws of motion
and universal gravitation,
he had single-handedly created
the field of optics.
No one thinks this was anything
other than a man's labor.
And it took 200 years of continuous ingenuity
on the part of some of the smartest people
who ever lived to substantially
improve upon Newton's work.
How difficult would it be to improve the Bible?
Anyone in this room could improve
the supposedly inerrant text...
scientifically, historically,
ethically, spiritually...
in moments!
If God loves us and wanted to guide us
with a book of morality,
it's very strange to have given us a book
that supports slavery,
that demands that we murder people for
imaginary crimes like witchcraft.
The true basis for hope in our world
is open-ended conversation.
And religion has shattered our world into
competing moral communities.
What we have to convince ourselves of is
that love and curiosity is enough for us,
and intellectual honesty is the guardian
of that. Thank you.
