Lecture: Religion vs. Morality

Conventionally, most people believe that morality can only be based in religious faith – that in a world without God no principles of right and wrong could exist. Related to this, philosophers have long held that no objective, fact-based, rational code of values is possible. Regarding both points, this talk shows that the exact opposite is true. The purpose of morality is to guide human life on earth – and religion is utterly incapable of it. Flourishing life requires a code of secularism, rationality, egoism and freedom. Religious faith clashes with every principle of a proper moral code, and as such, has led–and can only lead to–hell on earth. The speaker, Dr. Andrew Bernstein, is a professor of philosophy at Marist College and also lectures at the State University of New York, where he was selected as Outstanding Teacher in 2004. He has given addresses at Harvard, Stanford, West Pont, Northwestern, Carnegie-Mellon, Columbia, the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, USC, among others. He is a frequent contributor to several major newspapers as well as a frequent radio and TV commentator. He is also affiliated with the Ayn Rand Institute, where he is a Senior Writer and Speaker. He has published several books, including Heart of a Pagan, The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic, and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire, and Cliffs Notes for Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and Anthem.

University of California, Los Angeles. Date: Thurs, Oct. 26, 2006 Time: 7:30 PM Location: Moore 100 http://www.ucla.edu/map/ Contact Info: info@ClubLogic.org