Richard Dawkins Quotes – Insightful Words from a Leading Scientist

Science is the poetry of reality.

We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.

What’s wrong with being childish? I like children. They are not human maggots; they are great.

We are all born atheist and must be taught to believe in God.

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true.

Science is interesting, and if you don’t agree, you can fuck off.

Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.

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

The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.

Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent. This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn.

There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.

Richard Dawkins Quotes – Insightful Words from a Leading Scientist part 2

Science is the enemy of dogma, because it teaches us to question everything and doubt our own beliefs.

The theory of evolution is like a magic eye picture – to the uninitiated it is a mess of dots, but once you learn to see the pattern, a clear image emerges.

Religion teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.

The beauty of science is that it doesn’t care whether you believe in it or not.

Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.

Scientists are often accused of being arrogant and dismissive, but we simply want evidence before accepting something as true.

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

Religion is the refuge of many who have a fear of uncertainty and a need for absolutes.

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.

If children understand that beliefs should be substantiated with evidence, as opposed to tradition, authority, revelation or faith, they will automatically work out for themselves that they are atheists.

The illusion of design is so successful that to this day most Americans (including, significantly, most college graduates) stubbornly believe in the design hypothesis.

Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them.

It’s been suggested that if the super-naturalists really had the powers they claim, they’d 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. Either way, why are they wasting their talents doing party turns on television?

One of the things that is wrong with religion is that it teaches us to be satisfied with answers which are not really answers at all.

The theory of evolution is the single best idea anyone has ever had.

The human brain is a superb instrument for spotting patterns and relationships, and this is both its strength and its weakness.

Good scientists are wasters of time. They waste their own time and also waste that of other scientists.

Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief without evidence; science is belief based on evidence.

In the Darwinian world view, a species is a collective temporary vehicle in which genetic material spends a tiny fraction of eternity.

As long as we’re alive, we have to continue living.

I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don’t have to waste your time in either attacking or defending.

Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they’re eating sandwiches.

Science, unlike religion, actively encourages doubt and questioning.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

The true beauty of science lies in the fact that it is open to scrutiny and constant revision.

There is something deep and mysterious about science, but there is also something comforting and hopeful.

We are all connected by the same basic laws of nature, and understanding this can bring us together rather than divide us.

It takes courage to question our own beliefs and challenge the status quo, but it is necessary for progress.

Our curiosity and ability to question is what sets us apart as humans, and we must never stop asking why.

Science is not just about finding answers, but also about asking the right questions.

The beauty of science is that it is always evolving, always pushing the boundaries of what we know.

There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not wanting to know.

We must always be critical thinkers, questioning everything and seeking evidence for our beliefs.