English - Scientist | March 26, 1941 -
The very idea of supernatural magic - including miracles - is incoherent, devoid of sensible meaning.
Richard Dawkins
MeaningMagicMiraclesIdeaSensible
The Bible should be taught, but emphatically not as reality. It is fiction, myth, poetry, anything but reality. As such it needs to be taught because it underlies so much of our literature and our culture.
CulturePoetryBibleRealityFiction
I think the written word is probably the best medium of communication because you have time to reflect, you have time to choose your words, to get your sentences exactly right. Whereas when you're being interviewed, say, you have to talk on the fly, you have to improvise, you can change sentences around, and they're not exactly right.
ChangeCommunicationTimeBestWords
Science has taught us, against all intuition, that apparently solid things like crystals and rocks are really almost entirely composed of empty space. And the familiar illustration is the nucleus of an atom is a fly in the middle of a sports stadium, and the next atom is in the next sports stadium.
ScienceSportsSpaceFlyRocksNext
'What is the purpose of the universe?' is a silly question.
PurposeUniverseSillyQuestion
Religious fanatics want people to switch off their own minds, ignore the evidence, and blindly follow a holy book based upon private 'revelation'.
PeopleBookIgnoreWantFollowOwn
The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.
FaithSimpleBlindMemeInquiryOwn
A delusion is something that people believe in despite a total lack of evidence.
PeopleBelieveEvidenceDelusion
If something is true, no amount of wishful thinking will change it.
ChangeThinkingTrueWillSomething
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.
PowerBrainNightWake UpDreamUp
Astrology is an aesthetic affront. It cheapens astronomy, like using Beethoven for commercial jingles.
AestheticAstronomyAstrologyLike
Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to because we may then at least have the chance to upset their designs.
ChanceSelfishUpsetUnderstandOwn
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Richard Dawkins quotes