Yes, exactly!
So what? Man is the only responsible for future of this world, and our future and the future of the planet is in MAN’s hands. That is,if we exclude natural forces man is not YET able to fight. You might call such natural forces “god’s will”, and I do not doubt you will, immediatelly.
But do not forget that the plague was once called “god’s will” against which man was helpless!
Lightning was also “god’s will”, but then man invented a lightning rod. Floods were “god’s will”, but man invented levees and dams.
If we were in “god’s hands”, we would all be exterminated already: he never offerd us vaccines, dams,…

Why would a modern man be worse in determining morality than jalous and cruel biblical god, or any other god, with similar properties. And no other god ever appeared since biblical times, with more modern determination of morality.

You might want to stop with your emotionalism. It is petty and silly. My life is and continues to be outstanding but thanks for the concern.

How „sweet“ it is to list examples from recent history!
And how “sweet“ is to neglect the fact that all the organized religions, including christianity, were organized on exactly the same principles as uthorities in Iran, Iraq, USSR, China… were, just not for decades, but for milleniums!

I just deleted a really snarky note to you chockablock with ad hominem attacks. But life is too short for this nonsense. You don’t want to hear new ideas with a rational bent. That is your business. Spend your life as you wish, just please do not do any thing to harm people who don’t believe as you do. (Try to) Have a good life.

Wow, I am impressed with your magnificent physique, your money and your position in society. Thanks for sharing, lol…I guess. Moving away from your delusions of grandeur, to sum up your argument, whatever the majority believes is moral becomes the moral law. Murder in this case.

Yes, I see how well that works in Iran, Iraq, the former USSR and China. Thanks, you proved my point. When the state gains power and makes the decisions in many cases, it becomes might makes right. For Sam Harris, some ideas are so dangerous those who believe them should be extinguished. Great. Again, isn’t it great to be in a nation where Judeo-Christian heritage formed the infrastructure of our laws?

PS, I played outside linebacker for the Virginia Cavaliers in the early 80s. I can still handle myself quite well if you feel the need….

For me to be a coward, that would imply somehow I am afraid of you. I am 6’4 and a very fit 235lbs, from what I can see much better educated that you, and on the highly improbable chance you have more money than me, it is even more improbable you live better than me. Perhaps you could find a better term, but nevertheless, I am responding to you as you no doubt hoped.

First, murder is a legal term. It will put you on the wrong side of the law, and its consequences if caught are significant regardless of whether or not you are convicted. Therefore, from a purely practical perspective, the downside is significant. Unless you are pathetic, and the range of your outcomes is exceedingly limited, murder provides little upside at any rate: unfaithful lover? dump them. cheated out of money? sue them. cheated out of money from someone you trusted? you learned possibly an expensive lesson- anyone who is honest will have no problem signing a legally binding agreement etc. other reasons to murder someone? you should be committed.

You seem to be dealing with two concepts: first, your desire to kill people who threaten your obviously untenable theistic worldview, and secondly, your lack of gumption to conceive a world where people would create a morality for mutual benefit.

On the first point, it is easy for me to say, “You really should look at that.” But, why the anger? Try to understand it. It is not likely something you can do on your own, so it would be advisable to get help. Many communities have services if you are uninsured.

On the second point, it has been better written than what I am going to do, and again, anyone capable of comprehending and assimilating new information would benefit from Olivia Judson ( she is at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/olivia-judson/ ), although she is not an anthropologist. At any rate, we can see, aside from the sex-loving bonobos ( our species’ closest relative ), chimps and baboons do kill each other often for short-term gain. But, advantages are always short lived, and the endless cycle of violence continues. Given the variety of people anyone knows, it is not hard to imagine sometime in the past there was a clan of proto-humans who actually found that they could get more done by co-operating within their group. Co-operation implies rules of conduct and interaction which would of course been informal, but consistent with the cognition of the creatures. If the co-operation was successful, then the clan would have been more successful reproducing and would have grown. That natural advantage would have come to create dominance in an area, and spread, etc. Cohesion in the group made for success. It is hard to imagine how murder in the group would have made it more successful, you would be like baboons, so it was surely not favored, and likely made taboo.

This is pretty much the human story up to a few millennia ago. Of course, the downside of a good brain are questions about the nature of the universe, and it is very well documented that the human tries to find a pattern or rule to shore up unknowns. When questions about natural phenomena, lightning, fire, seasons, death, etc. as well as perplexing random events were found to be unanswerable with given knowledge, then our human creative-capable-of-abstraction brains came up with stories, which over time evolved into gods, and with further knowledge and abstraction evolved into monotheism. Unexpectedly, although showing a human psychological need, now the Jesus nonsense is being more widely debunked, folks are finding succor and fun in polytheism (neo-paganism is sort of a new fashion, particularly Nordic Gods possibly because the Bareuth is perennially sold-out). Go figure. But then once the god myths were dispensed, and the best myths believed, the evil side of people came to play and those seeking power began claimed special proximity to the gods and religion and royalty was born, and untold evil ensued.

I have wasted 20 minutes writing this stuff, and I am equally sure I have not done anything to change your mind and improve your life.

Readers- Get this… The Bible in action again…

http://www.fixedearth.com/

I can only surmise you are a coward and cannot provide a rationale argument outside of the laws of mankind. remember, dangerous ideas have consequences.

You didn’t recognize a very well known um,shall I say “quote” somewhat reworded from one of your own atheist leaders.

On further thought, perhaps you should skip basic Biology, and try therapy. Less internal conflict might open you up to new ideas.

Don’t pass the buck. Why is murder bad? If an individual determines that come ideas are so dangerous that the individuals should be killed why are they wrong?