quote · Legacy record
One of the most pernicious effects of religion is that it tends to divorce morality from the reality of human and animal suffering. Religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are not--that is, when they have nothing to do with suffering or its alleviation. Indeed, religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are highly immoral--that is, when pressing these concerns inflicts unnecessary and appalling suffering on innocent human beings.
One of the most pernicious effects of religion is that it tends to divorce morality from the reality of human and animal suffering. Religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are not--that is, when they have nothing to do with suffering or its alleviation. Indeed, religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are highly immoral--that is, when pressing these concerns inflicts unnecessary and appalling suffering on innocent human beings.
Approximate author period: c. 1967 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Sam Harris
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- Approximate author period: c. 1967 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from documented birth year 1967; activity date not established; Wikidata Q296047, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q296047 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 246820; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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