Atheists on Morality and Religion

I'll collect some quotes and put them here...

'Most studies show that conventional religion is not an effective force for moral behaviour or against criminal activity'  Bernard Spilka, Ralph Hood and Richard Gorsuch, authors of 'The Psychology of Religion'


'Every single bit of progress in humane feelings, every improvement in the criminal law, every step towards the diminution of war, every step towards better treatment of the coloured races, or every mitigation of slavery...has been consistently opposed by the organised churches of the world.  I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organised in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world'  --  Bertrand Russell  (1872-1970)

'In every religion it soon comes to be the case that faith, ceremonies, rites and the like, are proclaimed to me more agreeable to the Divine will than moral actions; the former...gradually comes to be looked upon as a substitute for the latter'  --  Arthur Schopenhauer  (1788-1860)

In a study involving hypothetical moral dilemmas:

'There were no statistically significant differences between subjects with or without religious backgrounds...Like other psychological faculties of the mind, including language and mathematics, (it appears that) we are endowed with a moral faculty that guides our intuitive judgements of right and wrong...It is our own nature, not God, that is the source of our morality'  --  Peter Singer  (1946-  ) 

'Why does it not say anywhere in the Bible that slavery is wrong?...How is it possible that it is not immoral to own another person?  Why isn't that one of the Ten Commandments?  'Thou shalt not own another person.'  You want to sit here and tell me that fornication is worse than owning someone?'  Mira Sorvino  (1967-  )