What Yuval Noah Harari thinks about religion
Israeli historian and philosopher, born in 1976; author of Sapiens, Homo Deus, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century and Nexus; lecturer in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; co-founder of Sapienship in 2019.
Yuval Noah Harari did not write this page.
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17 dated positions, 2015 to c. 2024–2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Yuval Noah Harari has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsScience is a team effort, relying on institutional collaboration rather than on individual scientists or, say, a single infallible book. Of course, institutions too are prone to error. Scientific institutions are nevertheless different from religious institutions, inasmuch as they reward skepticism and innovation rather than conformity.
↗Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (Random House, 2025 paperback edition)books.google.com All 31 from this book
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Their wordswhen the printing revolution swept Europe in the early modern period, it did not lead directly, as many people think, to the scientific revolution.
↗Yuval Noah Harari - "Nexus" & Threat of AI in the Information Age | The Daily Showyoutube.com 2nd of 3 in this recording
- 11 months earlier
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Their wordsMany of the forces in the region are currently led by irresponsible religious fanatics. External forces must therefore intervene to deescalate the conflict.
↗Israelis and Palestinians are facing their moment of greatest danger since 1948 (The Guardian)theguardian.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
- 9 months earlier
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Our readingJudaism's belief in a personal afterlife came from outside, from Plato and Zoroastrianism
Their wordsBelief in a personal after-life seeped into Judaism from other faiths, most notably from the Greek philosophy of Plato and from the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism.
↗The Dangerous Quest for Identity (TIME)time.com 1st of 4 in this piece
- 4 years earlier
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Their wordsI tend to separate religions from spirituality. Spirituality is about questions. Religion is about answers.
↗Yuval Noah Harari | 21 Lessons for the 21st Century | Talks at Googleyoutube.com 4th of 12 in this recording
- 4 weeks earlier
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Their wordsUnfortunately, “free will” isn’t a scientific reality. It is a myth inherited from Christian theology.
↗Yuval Noah Harari: the myth of freedom (The Guardian)theguardian.com 2nd of 5 in this piece
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Their wordsNew kinds of economic relations emerged together with new kinds of religious beliefs that justified the brutal exploitation of animals.
↗Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Vintage, 2017 edition; first published in English by Harvill Secker, 2016; Hebrew 2015)books.google.com All 30 from this book
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Their wordsThough science indeed deals only with facts, religion never confines itself to ethical judgements.
↗Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Vintage, 2017 edition; first published in English by Harvill Secker, 2016; Hebrew 2015)books.google.com All 30 from this book
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Our readingReligion gives ethical justification to scientific research and in return influences its agenda
Their wordsReligion provides the ethical justification for scientific research, and in exchange gets to influence the scientific agenda and the uses of scientific discoveries.
↗Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Vintage, 2017 edition; first published in English by Harvill Secker, 2016; Hebrew 2015)books.google.com All 30 from this book
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Our readingModern society was saved from collapse not by supply and demand but by the new religion of humanism
Their wordsHumankind was salvaged not by the law of supply and demand, but rather by the rise of a revolutionary new religion – humanism.
↗Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Vintage, 2017 edition; first published in English by Harvill Secker, 2016; Hebrew 2015)books.google.com All 30 from this book
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Our readingHumanism expects humanity to play the part that God and the laws of nature played in older religions
Their wordsThe humanist religion worships humanity, and expects humanity to play the part that God played in Christianity and Islam, and that the laws of nature played in Buddhism and Daoism.
↗Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Vintage, 2017 edition; first published in English by Harvill Secker, 2016; Hebrew 2015)books.google.com All 30 from this book
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Their wordsReligion and technology always dance a delicate tango. They push one another, depend on one another and cannot stray too far away from one another.
↗Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (Vintage, 2017 edition; first published in English by Harvill Secker, 2016; Hebrew 2015)books.google.com All 30 from this book
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Our readingReligion's crucial historical role has been to give superhuman legitimacy to fragile imagined orders
Their wordsThe crucial historical role of religion has been to give superhuman legitimacy to these fragile structures.
↗Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Vintage, 2015 edition; first published in Hebrew 2011; translated by the author with John Purcell and Haim Watzman)books.google.com All 35 from this book
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Their wordsReligion is a system of human norms and values that is founded on belief in a superhuman order.
↗Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Vintage, 2015 edition; first published in Hebrew 2011; translated by the author with John Purcell and Haim Watzman)books.google.com All 35 from this book
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Our readingCommunism was the first techno-religion, promising paradise here on Earth through technology
Their wordscommunism was the first techno-religion, a religion or ideology if you prefer that promises roughly the same things that were promised by the traditional religions.
↗New Religions of the 21st Century | Yuval Harari | Talks at Googleyoutube.com 4th of 11 in this recording
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Their wordsSo we see the potential rise of a new kind of religion, a data religion. If previously God was in the center of events and then humans were in the center of events. Now data or information becomes the supreme source of authority and of meaning in the world.
↗New Religions of the 21st Century | Yuval Harari | Talks at Googleyoutube.com 9th of 11 in this recording
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Their wordsSo you don't need the truth to take over the world.
↗New Religions of the 21st Century | Yuval Harari | Talks at Googleyoutube.com 10th of 11 in this recording