People really, really hate their religion being criticized. It's as though you've said they had an ugly face; they seem to identify personally with it. Richard Dawkins More Quotes by Richard Dawkins More Quotes From Richard Dawkins We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Richard Dawkins lucky light people We have to find our own purposes in life, which are not derived directly from our scientific history. Richard Dawkins purpose-of-life purpose I've been reading an Alabama newspaper that one man shot another man because he beat him in a Bible-quoting competition. Richard Dawkins atheist reading men Why do more than 40 percent of Americans think that the Universe began after the domestication of the dog? Richard Dawkins atheist dog thinking If you have a faith, it is statistically overwhelmingly likely that it is the same faith as your parents and grandparents had. No doubt soaring cathedrals, stirring music, moving stories and parables, help a bit. But by far the most important variable determining your religion is the accident of birth. The convictions that you so passionately believe would have been a completely different, and largely contradictory, set of convictions, if only you had happened to be born in a different place. Richard Dawkins atheist believe moving God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or infective power, in the environment provided by human culture. Richard Dawkins survival culture religion The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry. Richard Dawkins blind-belief curiosity simple ...it is a telling fact that, the world over, the vast majority of children follow the religion of their parents rather than any of the other available religions. Richard Dawkins parent death children The enlightenment is under threat. So is reason. So is truth. So is science, especially in the schools of America. Richard Dawkins enlightenment america school Blasphemy is a Victimless Crime. Richard Dawkins blasphemy crime 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 cat atheist thinking Beliefs. Once entrenched in a culture, they persist, evolve and diverge, in a manner reminiscent of biological evolution. Richard Dawkins evolution belief culture Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think. Richard Dawkins atheist faith thinking A delusion is something that people believe in despite a total lack of evidence. Richard Dawkins delusion believe people There's this thing called being so open-minded your brains drop out. Richard Dawkins business believe death If we want to know where the truth lies in particular cases, we have to Richard Dawkins want lying looks Molecular evidense suggests that our common ancestor with the chimpanzees lived, in Africa, between 5 and 7 million years ago, say half a million generations ago. This is not long by evolutionary standards. Richard Dawkins generations long years Whether we ever get to know about them or not, there are very probably alien civilizations that are superhuman, to the point of being god-like in ways that exceed anything a theologian could possibly imagine. Their technical achievements would seem as supernatural to us as ours would seem to a Dark Age peasant transported to the twenty-first century. Imagine his response to a laptop computer, a mobile telephone, a hydrogen bomb or a jumbo jet. Richard Dawkins hydrogen-bomb dark civilization I detest 'Jingle Bells,' 'White Christmas,' 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,' and the obscene spending bonanza that nowadays seems to occupy not just December, but November and much of October, too. Richard Dawkins jingles christmas white Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one. Richard Dawkins religious spiritual death
