Romans 3:23 states:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

No person has existed, except Jesus, who is without sin.

There was an atheist named Adam Lee who once said “that people become irrational and dangerous to the precise degree in which they truly believe their religion and take its claims seriously.”

The Bible clearly presents the truth that mankind is sinful at its core.  People are capable of “irrational and dangerous” acts even before embracing religion.  Anyone can use out-of-context words to justify/excuse their actions, whether or not their intentions existed before or after they became religious.

Take Judas (the disciple who betrayed Jesus), for example.  His greed for money was the weakness that led him to sin.  God once advised,

if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.  – Genesis 4:7o

This was just before Cain killed Abel – before “religion” existed.  God counseled Cain to do well, but Cain drove on regardless with his murderous intent.

Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg said, "With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil -- that takes religion."

This is not truth.  First, Jesus himself stated that “no man is good” (Luke 18:19).  Second, consider Cain who existed before religion and still did evil.  Before the fall of man, Adam (who surely could be considered ‘good’ at that point) chose to disobey God, and brought sin/evil upon mankind.

If we eliminated “religion” all around the world, would evil go away?  No – because the ability to sin is in everyone.

Instead, let’s identify the source of evil.  According to the Bible, Satan is the leader of evil, and he governs over angels and demons that do his will.  He is the one who tempted Adam, and even Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11).  Satan is the one who tries to convince all people to do evil.  Satan is opposed to God and all who follow God.  Satan’s wish is to destroy everything God created and loves.

Jesus came to save people.  Let’s participate in his plan.