Religion

the beatitudes, which is actually Jesus' updated view of the values. Jesus' version appealed to deeper values. Moses was all negative, as in, "if you do any of these 10 things, God will strike you dead or send you to hell for eternity."

The Sermon on the Mount was more like "Be kind. Be a good person. Think about these things."

I don't need a religion and I don't need to pay dues to have good values. If that is what others need, so be it. But somewhere along the way, much of Christianity has become the opposite of what Jesus taught and that has become a grave danger to our society.

And even among the "faithful" who do try to be good people, a fiction-based existence makes them highly vulnerable to falsehoods from political charlatans. I mean, if you literally believe in a bearded guy in the sky who controls what every sparrow does and turns people to pillars of salt, then you are far more likely also to believe people in Springfield are eating the cats and dogs.