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Richard Dawkins Quotes - Page 24

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I accept that there may be things far grander and more incomprehensible than we can possibly imagine.

I accept that there may be things far grander and more incomprehensible than we can possibly imagine.

Richard Dawkins
May, Imagine, Accepting
"God vs. Science". Interview with David Van Biema, content.time.com. November 5, 2006.

It doesn't hurt my feeling when I get vilified by fundamentalist religious people. I've actually made comedy out of it. I've made light of that.

Richard Dawkins
Religious, Hurt, Light

I would, like any other scientist, willingly change my mind if the evidence led me to do so. So I care about what's true, I care about evidence, I care about evidence as the reason for knowing what is true. It is true that I come across rather passionate sometimes - and that's because I am passionate about the truth... I do get very impatient with humbug, with cant, with fakery, with charlatans.

Richard Dawkins
Knowing, Mind, Atheism
"Belief" Interview, www.bbc.co.uk. October 22, 2009.

If you divide Christians into denominations, agnostics and atheists come in third, behind Catholics and Baptists. That's interesting when you contrast it with the lack of influence of nonbelievers.

Richard Dawkins
Christian, Atheist, Interesting
Interview with Chip Rowe, www.playboy.com. August 20, 2012.

Genome sequencing has changed taxonomy.

Richard Dawkins
Taxonomy, Changed, Sequencing

I really, really would like to see religion go away altogether.

Richard Dawkins
Going Away
Source: newrepublic.com

Science has taught us, against all intuition, that apparently solid things like crystals and rocks are really almost entirely composed of empty space. And the familiar illustration is the nucleus of an atom is a fly in the middle of a sports stadium, and the next atom is in the next sports stadium.

Richard Dawkins
Sports, Space, Rocks
"The God Delusion". Book by Richard Dawkins, October 2, 2006.

More poignant for us, at Laetoli in Tanzania are the companionable footprints of three real hominids, probably Australopithecus afarensis, walking together 3.6 million years ago in what was then fresh volcanic ash. Who does not wonder what these individuals were to each other, whether they held hands or even talked, and what forgotten errand they shared in a Pliocene dawn?

Richard Dawkins
Real, Hands, Years

I didn't have a very starry school career, I was medium to above average, nothing special.

Richard Dawkins
School, Average, Careers

I don't shout people down. I argue people down, perhaps.

Richard Dawkins
People, Arguing
Source: newrepublic.com

We are a very, very unusual species.

Richard Dawkins
Unusual, Species
"Richard Dawkins on the Truth of Evolution". "NOW with Bill Moyers", billmoyers.com. 2004.

I am utterly fed up with the respect we have been brainwashed into bestowing upon religion.

Richard Dawkins
Feds, Fed Up, Brainwashed

When we started out and we were talking about the origins of the universe and the physical constants, I provided what I thought were cogent arguments against a supernatural intelligent designer. But it does seem to me to be a worthy idea.

Richard Dawkins
Intelligent, Talking, Ideas
Source: inters.org

I speak as a private citizen and not as a representative of the Executive Branch of the United States government. The impression that people of faith are uniformly opposed to stem-cell research is not documented by surveys. In fact, many people of strong religious conviction think this can be a morally supportable approach.

Richard Dawkins
Religious, Strong, Thinking
Source: inters.org

It could be any of a billion Gods. It could be God of the Martians or of the inhabitants of Alpha Centauri. The chance of its being a particular God, Yahweh, the God of Jesus, is vanishingly small - at the least, the onus is on you to demonstrate why you think that's the case.

Richard Dawkins
Jesus, Thinking, Yahweh
Source: inters.org

I think there in a great deal to be said for religious education in the sense of teaching about religion and biblical literacy. Both those things, by the way, I suspect will prepare a child to give up religion. If you are taught comparative religion, you are more likely to realise that there are other religions than the one you have been brought up in. And if you are if you are taught to read the bible, I can think of almost nothing more calculated to turn you off religion.

Richard Dawkins
Religious, Children, Giving Up

Aquarius is a miscellaneous set of stars all at different distances from us, which have no connection with each other except that they constitute a (meaningless) pattern when seen from a certain (not particularly special) place in the galaxy (here).

Richard Dawkins
Stars, Distance, Aquarius

Evolution is as much a fact as the heat of the sun.

Richard Dawkins
Heat Of The Sun, Progress, Facts
"The Illusion of Design". Natural History Magazine, November 2005.

You can make some inferences about a man's character if you know something about the conditions in which he has survived and prospered.

Richard Dawkins
Character, Men, Inference
Richard Dawkins (2016). “The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition”, p.24, Oxford University Press

Physicists are working on the Big Bang, and one day they may or may not solve it.

Richard Dawkins
One Day, Bangs, May
"God vs. Science". Interview with David Van Biema, content.time.com. November 5, 2006.

You can't blame science for being used for evil purposes. What you can do is say, 'This is an exceedingly powerful tool.' And you want to make sure it is used for good purposes, not bad ones. That is a political decision.

Richard Dawkins
Powerful, Evil, Decision
Source: www.newrepublic.com

There may be some deep questions about the cosmos that are forever beyond science. The mistake is to think they are therefore not beyond religion too.

Richard Dawkins
Mistake, Thinking, Forever
Richard Dawkins (2004). “A Devil's Chaplain”, p.149, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

We should take astrology seriously. No, I don't mean we should believe in it. I am talking about fighting it seriously instead of humouring it as a piece of harmless fun.

Richard Dawkins
Fun, Believe, Mean

Hence, at the moment of the creation of the universe, God could also have activated evolution, with full knowledge of how it would turn out, perhaps even including our having this conversation. The idea that he could both foresee the future and also give us spirit and free will to carry out our own desires becomes entirely acceptable.

Richard Dawkins
Ideas, Giving, Desire
Source: inters.org

Theology is a non-subject. I'm not saying that professors of theology are non-professors. They do interesting things, like study biblical history, biblical literature. But theology, the study of gods, the study of what gods do, presupposes that gods exist. The only kind of theology that I take account of are those theological arguments that actually argue for the existence of God.

Richard Dawkins
Biblical, Interesting, Literature
"Richard Dawkins at the Sydney Writers' Festival". "The Science Show" with Robyn Williams, www.abc.net.au. September 8, 2007.