Quotes By Richard Dawkins

Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that.

At the deepest level, all living things that have ever been looked at have the same DNA code. And many of the same genes.

Nothing is wrong with peace and love. It is all the more regrettable that so many of Christ's followers seem to disagree.

We are a very, very unusual species.

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.

Segregation has no place in the education system.

Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence.

Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.

Sometimes I think it's possible to mistake desire for clarity and talking in a no-nonsense way for aggression.

But perhaps the rest of us could have separate classes in science appreciation, the wonder of science, scientific ways of thinking, and the history of scientific ideas, rather than laboratory experience.

I didn't have a very starry school career, I was medium to above average, nothing special.

I love words.

I am very comfortable with the idea that we can override biology with free will.

I think looking back to my own childhood, the fact that so many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's something for research.

It would be intolerant if I advocated the banning of religion, but of course I never have.

By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.

We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

Today the theory of evolution is about as much open to doubt as the theory that the earth goes round the sun.

Personally, I rather look forward to a computer program winning the world chess championship. Humanity needs a lesson in humility.

I do disapprove very strongly of labelling children, especially young children, as something like 'Catholic children' or 'Protestant children' or 'Islamic children.'

I'm not one of those who wants to purge our society of our Christian history.

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

My decision to be a scientist was a bit of a drift really, more or less by default.

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.

Religious fanatics want people to switch off their own minds, ignore the evidence, and blindly follow a holy book based upon private 'revelation'.

Metaphors are fine if they aid understanding, but sometimes they get in the way.

At least the fundamentalists haven't tried to dilute their message. Their faith is exposed for what it is for all to see.

I was confirmed at my prep school at the age of 13.

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.

I'm a cultural Christian in the same way many of my friends call themselves cultural Jews or cultural Muslims.