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Richard Dawkins Quotes - Page 21

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It would be really worrying if, as a Darwinian, it was impossible to think of ways in which our behavior could be explained.

It would be really worrying if, as a Darwinian, it was impossible to think of ways in which our behavior could be explained.

Richard Dawkins
Thinking, Worry, Way
Source: newrepublic.com

I find that religion really does motivate people to do horrible things because they have this passionate faith in whatever their religion happens to be, and it teaches them that the other religion is the wrong one.

Richard Dawkins
People, Doe, Passionate
Interview with George Negus, www.sbs.com.au. March 7, 2010.

Though the details differ across the world, no known culture lacks some version of the time-consuming, wealth consuming, hostility provoking rituals, the anti-factual, counter-productive fantasies of religion.

Richard Dawkins
World, Details, Culture
Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.194, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

For me, moral questions such as stem-cell research turn upon whether suffering is caused. In this case, clearly none is. The embryos have no nervous system. But that's not an issue discussed publicly. The issue is, Are they human? If you are an absolutist moralist, you say, "These cells are human, and therefore they deserve some kind of special moral treatment."

Richard Dawkins
Cells, Issues, Suffering
Source: inters.org

I am very comfortable with the idea that we can override biology with free will.

Richard Dawkins
Ideas, Free Will, Biology

If you want to do bad things, science is the most powerful way to do them.

Richard Dawkins
Powerful, Want, Way
Source: newrepublic.com

It would be intolerant if I advocated the banning of religion, but of course I never have.

Richard Dawkins
Would Be, Courses, Ifs

Absolutist morality doesn't have to come from religion but usually does.

Richard Dawkins
Doe, Morality
Source: inters.org

Most thoughtful people would agree that morality in the absence of policing is somehow more truly moral than the kind of false morality that vanishes as soon as the police go on strike or the spy camera is switched off, whether the spy camera is a real one monitored in the police station or an imaginary one in heaven.

Richard Dawkins
Real, Thoughtful, People
Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.263, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

I great difficulty having any respect for a religion that has so little confidence in the truth of its beliefs that it feels reduced to using threats in order to propagate those beliefs.

Richard Dawkins
Order, Religion, Littles

Why would anybody be intimidated by mere words? I mean, neither I nor any other athiest that I know ever threatens violence. We never threaten to fly planes into skyscrapers. We never threaten suicide bombs. We are very gentle people. All we do is use words to talk about things like the cosmos, the origin of the universe, evolution, the origin of life. What's there to be frightened of? It's just an opinion.

Richard Dawkins
Suicide, Mean, Origin Of Life

Public sharing is an important part of science.

Richard Dawkins
Important

If we want to know where the truth lies in particular cases, we have to look.

Richard Dawkins
Lying, Want, Looks
Richard Dawkins (2016). “The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition”, p.252, Oxford University Press

The illusion of design is so successful that to this day most Americans (including, significantly, many influential and rich Americans) stubbornly refuse to believe it is an illusion.

Richard Dawkins
Believe, Successful, Design

If we are too friendly to nice, decent bishops, we run the risk of buying into the fiction that there's something virtuous about believing things because of faith rather than because of evidence. We run the risk of betraying scientific enlightenment.

Richard Dawkins
Running, Nice, Believe
"Scientists divided over alliance with religion" by Alok Jha, www.theguardian.com. May 29, 2007.

I read in the paper today the list of the most popular boys' names in Britain. The first was Jack, the second was Mohammed. That makes me feel a little bit worried.

Richard Dawkins
Boys, Names, Firsts
Source: www.macleans.ca

Physicists have come up with other explanations. One is to say that these six constants are not free to vary. Some unified theory will eventually show that they are as locked in as the circumference and the diameter of a circle. That reduces the odds of them all independently just happening to fit the bill.

Richard Dawkins
Circles, Odds, Bills
Source: inters.org

The whole of technology depends on a scientific background, and of course technology can be used for evil purposes. You can't blame science for that.

Richard Dawkins
Technology, Evil, Purpose
Source: newrepublic.com

Evolution is a very, very important idea. It is the explanation for all of life - a stunningly simple, yet powerful explanation. If you think about it, before Darwin, we hadn't the foggiest idea of how we came into being. Now we do. It's still such an exciting idea that it is well worth everybody understanding it.

Richard Dawkins
Powerful, Simple, Thinking
Source: www.macleans.ca

…the Genesis story is just one that happened to have been adopted by one particular tribe of Middle Eastern herders. It has no more special status than the belief of a particular West African tribe that the world was created from the excrement of ants.

Richard Dawkins
Atheist, African Tribes, Special
Richard Dawkins (1991). “The blind watchmaker”

In Britain you don't usually learn about evolution until you are about 15. I should have thought that you should start at about 8. But I could be wrong about that.

Richard Dawkins
Should Have, Evolution, Should
Source: www.macleans.ca

Discrimination is not liberal. Arguing against discrimination is not intolerance.

Richard Dawkins
Arguing, Discrimination, Intolerance
"What is the proper place for religion in Britain's public life?" by Will Hutton, Richard Dawkins, www.theguardian.com. February 18, 2012.

Or why it is acceptable to train fast runners and high jumpers but not to breed them. I can think of some answers, and they are good ones, which would probably end up persuading me. But hasn't the time come when we should stop being frightened even to put the question?

Richard Dawkins
Thinking, Eugenics, Answers
"From the Afterword". www.heraldscotland.com. November 20, 2006.

It sounds superficially fair. But it presupposes that that there is something in Christian theology to be ignorant about. The entire thrust of my position is that Christian theology is a non-subject. It is empty. Vacuous. Devoid of coherence or content. I imagine that McGrath would join me in expressing disbelief in fairies, astrology and Thor's hammer. How would he respond if a fairyologist, astrologer or Viking accused him of ignorance of their respective subjects?

Richard Dawkins
Christian, Ignorance, Astrology

There isn't [in new atheism]. Nothing that wasn't in Bertrand Russell or probably Robert Ingersoll. But I suppose it is more of a political effect, in that all these books happened to come out at the same time. I like to think that we have some influence.

Richard Dawkins
Book, Thinking, Political
Source: newrepublic.com