Are science and religion converging? No. There are modern scientists whose words sound religious but whose beliefs, on close examination, turn out to be identical to those of other scientists who straightforwardly call themselves atheists. Richard Dawkins More Quotes by Richard Dawkins More Quotes From Richard Dawkins Natural selection is all about the differential success of rival DNA in getting itself transmitted vertically in the species archives. Richard Dawkins archives rivals dna Without gradualness...we are back to a miracle. Richard Dawkins miracle Of course, we would love to know more about the exact moment of Big Bang, but interposing an outside intelligence does nothing to add to that knowledge, as we still know nothing about the creation of that intelligence. Richard Dawkins bangs doe add If complex organisms demand an explanation, so does a complex designer. And it's no solution to raise the theologian's plea that God (or the Intelligent Designer) is simply immune to the normal demands of scientific explanation. To do so would be to shoot yourself in the foot. You cannot have it both ways. Either ID belongs in the science classroom, in which case it must submit to the discipline required of a scientific hypothesis. Or it does not, in which case, get it out of the science classroom and send it back to church, where it belongs. Richard Dawkins discipline intelligent feet Any altruistic system is inherently unstable, because it is open to abuse by selfish individuals, ready to exploit it. Richard Dawkins abuse individual selfish In true natural selection, if a body has what it takes to survive, its genes automatically survive because they are inside it. So the genes that survive tend to be, automatically, those genes that confer on bodies the qualities that assist them to survive. Richard Dawkins quality survival science I have a strong feeling that the subject of evolution is beautiful without the excuse of creationists needing to be bashed. Richard Dawkins strong feelings beautiful Just imagine the banner headlines if a marine biologist were to discover a species of dolphin that wove large, intricately meshed fishing nets, twenty dolphin-lengths in diameter! Yet we take a spider web for granted, as a nuisance in the house rather than as one of the wonders of the world. And think of the furore if Jane Goodall returned from Gombe stream with photographs of wild chimpanzees building their own houses, well roofed and insulated, of painstakingly selected stones neatly bonded and mortared! Yet caddis larvae, who do precisely that, command only passing interest. Richard Dawkins marine fishing thinking Book critics or theatre critics can be derisively negative and gain delighted praise for the trenchant with of their review. But in criticisms of religion even clarity ceases to be a virtue and sounds like aggressive hostility. A politician may attack an opponent scathingly across the floor of the House and earn plaudits for his robust pugnacity. But let a soberly reasoning critic of religion employ what would in other contexts sound merely direct or forthright, and it will be described as a 'rant'. Richard Dawkins criticism house book No matter how much knowledge and wisdom you acquire during your life, not one jot will be passed on to your children by genetic means. Each new generation starts from scratch. Richard Dawkins scratches mean children It's a flaw in our argument, for sure. By any reading of evolutionary theory, creationists ought to have died out ages ago. They serve no function in the planet's ecosystem, and no other species has survived so long while in such fundamental disagreement with observable reality. If I wasn't such an ardent believer in secular materialism, I'd wager this is really troubling Darwin in the afterlife. Richard Dawkins ecosystems reading reality It is almost as if the human brain were specifically designed to misunderstand Darwinism, and to find it hard to believe Richard Dawkins economics brain believe Yesterday's dangerous idea is today's orthodoxy and tomorrow's cliché. Richard Dawkins dangerous-ideas yesterday today The trouble with conspiracies, even those that are to everybody's advantage in the long run, is that they are open to abuse. If manipulators really had the powers claimed, they could win the lottery every week. I prefer to point out that they could also win a Nobel Prize for discovering fundamental physical forces hitherto unknown to science. Richard Dawkins winning running long Nobody would seriously describe a tiny child as a Marxist child or an Anarchist child or a Post-modernist child. Yet children are routinely labelled with the religion of their parents. We need to encourage people to think carefully before labelling any child too young to know their own opinions and our adverts will help to do that. Richard Dawkins children people thinking Saddam Hussein's mind would have been a unique resource for historical, political and psychological research: a resource that is now forever unavailable to scholars... In a small way his execution represents a wanton and vandalistic destruction of important research data. Richard Dawkins data unique forever Of course in science there are things that are open to doubt and things need to be discussed. But among the things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything we know. Richard Dawkins doubt doe needs Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence. Richard Dawkins intelligent birthday life If saying that religion should be a private matter and should not have special influence in public life is illiberal, then 74% of U.K. Christians are illiberal, too. Richard Dawkins special christian matter It is a virtue to admit ignorance when you don't know, but not to wallow in ignorance as an end in itself. Richard Dawkins ignorance believe people
