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Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life

Book by Daniel Dennett · 11 quotes · Religion, Atheism, Thinking

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Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life Quotes

“People ache to believe that we human beings are vastly different from all other species - and they are right! We are different. We are the only species that has an extra medium of design preservation and design communication: culture.”

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Book:Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life
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“Highly technical philosophical arguments of the sort many philosophers favor are absent here. That is because I have a prior problem to deal with. I have learned that arguments, no matter how watertight, often fall on deaf ears. I am myself the author of arguments that I consider rigorous and unanswerable but that are often not such much rebutted or even dismissed as simply ignored.”

MatterProblemFallDealsAtheismArgumentEarsPhilosophicalPhilosopherFavorsI Have LearnedIgnoredDeafAbsentDeaf Ears
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“I think that there are no forces on this planet more dangerous to us all than the fanaticisms of fundamentalism, of all the species: Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, as well as countless smaller infections. Is there a conflict between science and religion here? There most certainly is.”

ThinkingWellsReligionForceDangerousPlanetsBuddhismConflictSpeciesIslamCatholicismHinduismFundamentalismJudaismScience And ReligionFanaticismInfectionProtestantismHinduism And Buddhism
Book:Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life
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“The theoretical fruits of deliberate oversimplification through idealization are not to be denied... Reality in all its messy particularity is too complicated to theorize about, taken straight. The issue is, rather (since every idealization is a strategic choice), which idealizations might really shed some light... which will just land us... diverting fairy tales.”

RealityLightMightChoicesIssuesTakenLandFruitComplicatedTalesFairyDeniedFairy TaleShedDeliberateTheoreticalStrategicMessyOversimplification
Book:Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life
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“The kindly God who lovingly fashioned each and every one of us and sprinkled the sky with shining stars for our delight - that God is, like Santa Claus, a myth of childhood, not anything [that] a sane, undeluded adult could literally believe in. That God must either be turned into a symbol for something less concrete or abandoned altogether.”

BelieveReligionStarsSkyAtheismChildhoodAdultsShiningDelightMythSymbolsAbandonedConcreteSaneSantaSanta ClausShining Star
Book:Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life
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