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Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins Quotes

Ethologist

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Famous Richard Dawkins Quotes

“I personally would go further and say that, if your morality is based, as mine is, on a desire to increase the sum of happiness and reduce suffering, the decision to deliberately give birth to a Down baby, when you have the choice to abort it early in the pregnancy, might actually be immoral from the point of view of the child’s own welfare.”

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Author:Richard Dawkins
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“It could be that at some earlier time, somewhere in the universe, a civilization evolved by probably some kind of Darwinian means to a very, very high level of technology- and designed a form of life that they seeded onto perhaps this planet. And I suppose it's possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the details of biochemistry, molecular biology, you might find a signature of some sort of designer.”

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Author:Richard Dawkins
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“If the universe were just electrons and selfish genes, meaningless tragedies ... are exactly what we should expect, along with equally meaningless good fortune. Such a universe would be neither evil nor good in intention ... The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.”

IfsShouldWould BePurposeUniverseEvilDesignTragedyBlindPropertyFortuneIntentionBottomSelfishIndifferenceMeaninglessGenesGood FortuneElectronsSelfish Gene
Author:Richard Dawkins
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“The God of the Old testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.”

CharacterGodReligionReligiousFictionAtheismAtheistDelusionSecularTestamentAgnosticOld TestamentThere Is No GodOrganized ReligionIf There Is A GodTheistAnti ReligiousControl FreakThere Being No GodUnforgivingHomophobicReligion ChristianVindictiveGod DelusionFaith ReligionReligion In SocietySelfish GeneAnti AtheistAnti GodEvil GodReligion Today
Book:The God Delusion
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“People sometimes say that you must believe in feelings deep inside, otherwise you'd never be confident of things like 'My wife loves me'. But this is a bad argument. There can be plenty of evidence that somebody loves you. All through the day when you are with somebody who loves you, you see and hear lots of little tidbits of evidence, and they all add up. It isn't purely inside feeling, like the feeling that priests call revelation. There are outside things to back up the inside feeling: looks in the eye, tender notes in the voice, little favors and kindnesses; this is all real evidence.”

PeopleLoveBelieveLooksLittlesRealSometimesFeelingsEyeVoiceKindnessWifeLove YouEvidenceArgumentAddNotesMy WifeFavorsPlentyRevelationsPriestsDeep InsideBe ConfidentWives Love
Book:A Devil's Chaplain
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“The popularity of the paranormal, oddly enough, might even be grounds for encouragement. I think that the appetite for mystery, the enthusiasm for that which we do not understand, is healthy and to be fostered. It is the same appetite which drives the best of true science, and it is an appetite which true science is best qualified to satisfy.”

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Author:Richard Dawkins
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“In medieval times, the Church used to sell 'indulgences' for money. This amounted to paying for some number of days' remission from purgatory, and the Church literally (and with breathtaking presumption) issued signed certificates specifying the number of days off that had been purchased. . . . And of all its money-making rip-offs, the selling of indulgences must surely rank among the greatest con tricks in history. . . .”

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Author:Richard Dawkins
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“In true natural selection, if a body has what it takes to survive, its genes automatically survive because they are inside it. So the genes that survive tend to be, automatically, those genes that confer on bodies the qualities that assist them to survive.”

IfsBodyScienceNaturalQualitySurvivalGenesSelectionNatural Selection
Book:The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design
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