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Richard Dawkins Quotes - Page 14

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Evolution has been observed. It's just that it hasn't been observed while it's happening.

Evolution has been observed. It's just that it hasn't been observed while it's happening.

Richard Dawkins
Evolution, Has Beens, Happenings
"NOW" with Bill Moyer and David Brancaccio, www.pbs.org. December 3, 2004.

A god who is capable of sending intelligible signals to millions of people simultaneously, and of receiving messages from all of them simultaneously, cannot be, whatever else he might be, simple. Such Bandwidth!

Richard Dawkins
Atheist, Simple, People
Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.184, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

If it is solely an evolutionary convenience, there is really no such thing as good or evil.

Richard Dawkins
Evil, Convenience, Ifs
Source: inters.org

We have to find our own purposes in life, which are not derived directly from our scientific history.

Richard Dawkins
Purpose, Purpose Of Life
"Religion and Atheism". "Q&A" with Tony Jones, www.abc.net.au. April 9, 2012.

In our prehistoric past, we would have lived in extended families, surrounded by kin whose interests we might have wanted to promote because they shared our genes. Now we live in big cities. We are not among kin nor people who will ever reciprocate our good deeds. It doesn't matter. Just as people engaged in sex with contraception are not aware of being motivated by a drive to have babies, it doesn't cross our mind that the reason for do-gooding is based in the fact that our primitive ancestors lived in small groups.

Richard Dawkins
Baby, Sex, Past
Source: inters.org

Real life seeks the gentle slopes at the back of Mount Improbable, while creationists are blind to all but the daunting precipice at the front.

Richard Dawkins
Real, Blind, Gentle
Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.148, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The idea of an afterlife where you can be reunited with loved ones can be immensely consoling - though not to me.

Richard Dawkins
Ideas, Afterlife, Loved Ones

I don't want to sound callous. I mean, even if I have nothing to offer, that doesn't matter, because that still doesn't mean that what anybody else has to offer therefore has to be true.

Richard Dawkins
Mean, Sound, Want
Interview with Sheena McDonald, 1995.

Something pretty mysterious had to give rise to the origin of the universe.

Richard Dawkins
Giving, Mysterious, Universe
"Religion and Atheism". "Q&A" with Tony Jones, www.abc.net.au. April 9, 2012.

All the great religions have a place for awe, for ecstatic transport at the wonder and beauty of creation.

Richard Dawkins
Wonder, Creation, Transport

I mean it as a compliment when I say that you could almost define a philosopher as someone who won't take common sense for an answer.

Richard Dawkins
Mean, Common Sense, Answers
Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.107, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things.

Richard Dawkins
Simple, Difficult, Science And Religion

The Universe does not owe us meaning.

Richard Dawkins
Doe, Universe

Part of the appeal was that Medawar was not only a Nobel Laureate, but he seemed like a Nobel Laureate; he was everything one thought a Nobel Laureate ought to be. If you have ever wondered why scientists like Popper, try Medawar's exposition. Actually most Popperian scientists have probably never tried reading anything but Medawar's exposition.

Richard Dawkins
Reading, Science, Trying

Science offers us an explanation of how complexity (the difficult) arose out of simplicity (the easy). The hypothesis of God offers no worthwhile explanation for anything, for it simply postulates what we are trying to explain. It postulates the difficult to explain, and leaves it at that.

Richard Dawkins
Simplicity, Trying, Easy

We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth and, if necessary, the selfish memes of our indoctrination. We can even discuss ways of deliberately cultivating and nurturing pure, disinterested altruism - something that has no place in nature, something that has never existed before in the whole history of the world. We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.

Richard Dawkins
Selfish, Rebel, Machines
"The Selfish Gene". Book by Richard Dawkins, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1976.

American political opportunities are loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest.

Richard Dawkins
Intelligent, Opportunity, Political
"Militant atheism". TED2002, www.ted.com. 2002.

Let our tribute to the dead be a new resolve: to respect people for what they individually think, rather than respect groups for what they were collectively brought up to believe.

Richard Dawkins
Believe, Thinking, People
Richard Dawkins (2004). “A Devil's Chaplain”, p.157, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I think the world's always a better place if people are filled with understanding.

Richard Dawkins
Thinking, People, Understanding

It is a remarkable coincidence that almost everyone has the same religion as their parents and it always just so happens they're the right religion.

Richard Dawkins
Atheist, Parent, Religion

There are all sorts of things that would be comforting. I expect an injection of morphine would be comforting... But to say that something is comforting is not to say that it's true.

Richard Dawkins
Comforting, Would Be, Injection
Interview with Sheena McDonald, 1995.

Indeed, organizing atheists has been compared to herding cats, because they tend to think independently and will not conform to authority. But a good first step would be to build up a critical mass of those willing to 'come out,' thereby encouraging others to do so. Even if they can't be herded, cats in sufficient numbers can make a lot of noise and they cannot be ignored.

Richard Dawkins
Atheist, Cat, Thinking
Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.27, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The enlightenment is under threat. So is reason. So is truth. So is science, especially in the schools of America.

Richard Dawkins
School, America, Enlightenment

Theologians will protest that the story of Abraham sacrificing Issac should not be taken as literal fact. And the appropriate response is twofold: first, many, many people even to this day, do take the whole of their Scripture to be literal fact, and they have a great deal of political power over the rest of us, especially in the United States and in the Islamic world. Second, if not of literal fact, how should we take the story? As an alagory? Then an alagory for what? Surely, nothing praiseworthy. As a moral lesson? But what kind of morals could one derive from this appalling story?

Richard Dawkins
Islamic, Taken, Sacrifice
"Richard Dawkins and God". "Background Briefing" with Kirsten Garrett on ABC Radio National, www.abc.net.au. November 26, 2006.

I don't think God is an explanation at all. It's simply redescribing the problem. We are trying to understand how we have got a complicated world, and we have an explanation in terms of a slightly simpler world, and we explain that in terms of a slightly simpler world and it all hangs together down to an ultimately simple world. Now, God is not an explanation of that kind. God himself cannot be simple if he has power to do all the things he is supposed to do.

Richard Dawkins
Simple, Thinking, Complicated World