Quotes from Richard Dawkins

The state of Israel seems to owe its very existence to the American Jewish vote, while at the same time consigning the non-religious to political oblivion.

I think I would abolish schools which systematically inculcate sectarian beliefs.

My thoughts, my beliefs, my feelings are all in my brain. My brain is going to rot.

I have often said that I am a passionate Darwinian when it comes to explaining why we exist.

Compassionate doctors sometimes lie to patients about the severity of their condition, and it is not always wrong to do so.

People say I'm shrill and strident.

Every night of our lives, we dream, and our brain concocts visions which are, at least until we wake up, highly convincing. Most of us have had experiences which are verging on hallucination. It shows the power of the brain to knock up illusions.

Why did humans lose their body hair? Why did they start walking on their hind legs? Why did they develop big brains? I think that the answer to all three questions is sexual selection.

Bishops sit in the House of Lords automatically.

In Britain, you don't usually learn about evolution until you are about 15. I should have thought that you should start at about 8. But I could be wrong about that.

What's going to happen when I die? I may be buried, or I may be cremated, I may give my body to science. I haven't decided yet.

For me, the level at which natural selection causes the phenomenon of adaptation is the level of the replicator - the gene.

Scientists disagree among themselves but they never fight over their disagreements. They argue about evidence or go out and seek new evidence. Much the same is true of philosophers, historians and literary critics.

My interest in biology was pretty much always on the philosophical side.

It is immoral to brand children with religion. 'This is a Catholic child.' 'That is a Muslim child.' I want everyone to flinch when they hear such a phrase, just as they would if they heard, 'That is a Marxist child.'

In the 1920s and 1930s, scientists from both the political left and right would not have found the idea of designer babies particularly dangerous - though, of course, they would not have used that phrase.

Saddam Hussein could have provided irreplaceable help to future historians of the Iran/Iraq war, of the invasion of Kuwait, and of the subsequent era of sanctions culminating in the current invasion.

The universe doesn't owe us condolence or consolation; it doesn't owe us a nice warm feeling inside.

From a Darwinian perspective, it is clear what pain is doing. It's a warning: 'Don't do that again.' If you burn yourself, you're never going to pick up a live coal again.

Christopher Hitchens was a great warrior, a magnificent orator, a pugilist and a gentleman. He was kind, but he took no prisoners when arguing with idiots.

In the World Wars, people were perfectly able to shoot other people just because they belonged to the wrong country, without ever asking what their opinions were. Faith too is like that.

There is something cheap about magic that works just because it is magic.

If you look up at the Milky Way through the eyes of Carl Sagan, you get a feeling in your chest of something greater than yourself. And it is. But it's not supernatural.

The very idea of supernatural magic - including miracles - is incoherent, devoid of sensible meaning.