Quotes from Richard Dawkins

If ever there was a slamming of the door in the face of constructive investigation, it is the word miracle. To a medieval peasant, a radio would have seemed like a miracle.

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.

It is possible in medicine, even when you intend to do good, to do harm instead. That is why science thrives on actively encouraging criticism rather than stifling it.

God stands out in the universe as the most glaring of all superfluous sore thumbs.

God is an idea that people believe in and I spend time arguing with people that subscribe to that idea(man made idea).

I can handle heckling on evolution because it's my own field.

Islands are natural workshops of evolution.

I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.

There does seem to be a sense in which physics has gone beyond what human intuition can understand. We shouldn't be too surprised about that because we're evolved to understand things that move at a medium pace at a medium scale. We can't cope with the very tiny scale of quantum physics or the very large scale of relativity.

I don't actually think 'The Selfish Gene' is a very good title. I think that's one of my worst titles.

I am thrilled to be alive at time when humanity is pushing against the limits of understanding. Even better, we may eventually discover that there are no limits.

By being outside of nature, God is also outside of space and time.

We have a huge amount of DNA in common with jellyfish.

If there are other worlds elsewhere in the universe, I would conjecture they are governed by the same laws of natural selection.

I suppose if you look back to your early childhood you accept everything people tell you, and that includes a heavy dose of irrationality - you're told about tooth fairies and Father Christmas and things.

Rather than say he's an atheist, a friend of mine says, 'I'm a tooth fairy agnostic,' meaning he can't disprove God but thinks God is about as likely as the tooth fairy.

It's a horrible idea that God, this paragon of wisdom and knowledge, power, couldn't think of a better way to forgive us our sins than to come down to Earth in his alter ego as his son and have himself hideously tortured and executed so that he could forgive himself.

A delusion is something that people believe in despite a total lack of evidence.

I think Douglas [Adams] is writing with an eye to irony for adults at the same time as entertaining children.

I'm a sucker for nice religious leaders. I fall for it every time.

Religion: Together we can find the cure.

"Matter flows from place to place, and momentarily comes together to be you. Some people find that thought disturbing; I find the reality thrilling.

Bereavement is terrible, of course. And when somebody you love dies, it's a time for reflection, a time for memory, a time for regret.

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.