Richard Dawkins Quotes & Sayings (Page 4)

“The very idea that we get a moral compass from religion is horrible. Not only should we not get our moral compass from religion, as a matter of fact we don't.”

“The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.”

“In the original introduction to the word meme in the last chapter of 'The Selfish Gene,' I did actually use the metaphor of a 'virus.' So when anybody talks about something going viral on the Internet, that is exactly what a meme is, and it looks as though the word has been appropriated for a subset of that.”

“Personally, I rather look forward to a computer program winning the world chess championship. Humanity needs a lesson in humility.”

“Secularism is categorically not saying that the religious may not speak out publicly or have a say in public life. It is about saying that religion alone should not confer a privileged say in public life, or greater influence on it. It really is as simple as that.”

“If something is true, no amount of wishful thinking will change it.”

“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.”

“We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can't disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.”

“Astrology is an aesthetic affront. It cheapens astronomy, like using Beethoven for commercial jingles.”

“God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or infective power, in the environment provided by human culture.”