Religion is nothing more than a useless and sometimes dangerous, evolutionary accident. Religious behavior may be a misfiring, an unfortunate byproduct of an underlying psychological propensity which in other circumstances is, or once was, useful.
Two religions cannot both be right, because they contradict each other, yet they can both be wrong.
The cynic about human nature might say that religious morality is an effective way of keeping people in line. The threat of hell, the reward of heaven, but the rules of the holy books are out of date and often barbaric.
I detest ‘Jingle Bells,’ ‘White Christmas,’ ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,’ and the obscene spending bonanza that nowadays seems to occupy not just December, but November and much of October, too.
Matthew and Luke handle the problem differently, by deciding that Jesus must have been born in Bethlehem after all. But they get him there by different routes.
Atheism is not a religion. Abstinence is not a sex position.
Cloning may be good and it may be bad. Probably it’s a bit of both. The question must not be greeted with reflex hysteria but decided quietly, soberly and on its own merits. We need less emotion and more thought.
After sleeping through a hundred million centuries, we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life.
False beliefs can be every bit as consoling as true ones, right up until the moment of disillusionment.
Darwin gives courage to the rest of science that we shall end up understanding literally everything, springing from almost nothing – a thought extremely hard to comprehend and believe.
Evolution has been observed. It’s just that it hasn’t been observed while it’s happening.
What’s wrong with being elitist if you are trying to encourage people to join the elite rather than being exclusive?
I might respect you as a brilliant intellect, runner, musician or juggler. But respect your BELIEFS? Only if they’re supported by evidence.
We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can’t disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But, like those other fantasies that we can’t disprove, we can say that God is very, very improbable.
I do feel visceral revulsion at the burka because for me it is a symbol of the oppression of women.
Being an atheist frees you up to live this life properly, happily, and fully.
Design cannot precede evolution and therefore cannot underlie the universe.
If you don’t know anything about computers, just remember that they are machines that do exactly what you tell them but often surprise you in the result.
Discrimination is not liberal. Arguing against discrimination is not intolerance.
You contain a trillion copies of a large, textual document written in a highly accurate, digital code, each copy as voluminous as a substantial book. I’m talking, of course, of the DNA in your cells.