All qualified physicists, biologists, cosmologists and geologists agree, on the basis of massive, mutually corroborating evidence, that the earth’s age is at least four billion years.
Reductionism is a dirty word, and a kind of ‘holistier than thou’ self-righteousness has become fashionable.
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.
We’ve all been brought up with the view that religion has some kind of special privileged status. You’re not allowed to criticise it.
The body is a survival machine programmed to propagate the genes that reside inside it.
Let our tribute to the dead be a new resolve: to respect people for what they individually think, rather than respect groups for what they were collectively brought up to believe.
We are digital archives of the African Pliocene, even of Devonian seas; walking repositories of wisdom out of the old days. You could spend a lifetime reading in this ancient library and die unsated by the wonder of it.
I’m not much given to straight, irony-free hero-worship.
The Universe does not owe us meaning.
I think what attracts me about the Electric Monk is that it’s such an eloquent example of the futility of belief for belief’s sake. I mean there’s only any point in believing something if it’s true.
I mean, in a way, I feel that one of the reasons for learning about Darwinian evolution is as an object lesson in how not to set up our values and social lives.
I do sometimes accuse people of ignorance, but that is not intended to be an insult. I’m ignorant of lots of things. Ignorance is something that can be remedied by education.
You don’t believe that the Earth is round only if you’re an astronaut. You don’t believe Napoleon existed only if you’re a historian. You believe these things because they’re facts, proved by evidence.
I think a fundamentalist is somebody who believes something unshakably and isn’t going to change their mind.
We have to find our own purposes in life, which are not derived directly from our scientific history.
There is great variation in brain power all the way from Einstien on one hand to Sarah Palin on the other.
You can’t imagine how gratifying it is to have a reader come up to you and say, ‘You changed my life.’
Genome sequencing has changed taxonomy.
Public sharing is an important part of science.
I respect you too much to respect your ridiculous ideas.