Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS FRSL is a British evolutionary biologist, ethologist, and popular-science writer. Dawkins emphasized the gene as the driving force of evolution and generated significant controversy. Inspirational Richard Dawkins quotes on free will, suffering, death, religion and hope will challenge the way you think.
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Most Famous Richard Dawkins Quotes
Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts which simply do not make evolutionary sense. Richard Dawkins
Science is the poetry of reality. Richard Dawkins
Faith is belief without evidence and reason; coincidentally that’s also the definition of delusion. Richard Dawkins
Scientific beliefs are supported by evidence, and they get results. Myths and faiths are not and do not. Richard Dawkins
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. Richard Dawkins
Today the theory of evolution is about as much open to doubt as the theory that the earth goes round the sun. Richard Dawkins
Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you. Richard Dawkins
You can’t blame science for being used for evil purposes. What you can do is say, ‘This is an exceedingly powerful tool.’ And you want to make sure it is used for good purposes, not bad ones. That is a political decision. Richard Dawkins
Evolution is just a theory? Well, so is gravity and I don’t see you jumping out of buildings. Richard Dawkins
Science has eradicated smallpox, can immunize against most previously deadly viruses, can kill most previously deadly bacteria. Theology has done nothing but talk of pestilence as the wages of sin. Richard Dawkins
The less you think, the more you believe. Richard Dawkins
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 an 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. Richard Dawkins
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die, because they are never going to be born. The number of people who could be here, in my place, out number the sand grains in the Sahara. If you think about all the different ways in which our genes could be permuted, you and I are quite grotesquely lucky to be here. The number of events that had to happen in order for you to exist, in order for me to exist we are privileged to be alive and nd we should make the most of our time on this world. Richard Dawkins
Just because science can’t in practice explain things like the love that motivates a poet to write a sonnet, that doesn’t mean that religion can. It’s a simple and logical fallacy to say, ‘If science can’t do something therefore religion can. Richard Dawkins
How thoughtful of God to arrange matters so that, wherever you happen to be born, the local religion always turns out to be the true one. Richard Dawkins
There is something wrong with using faith belief without evidence as a political weapon. I wouldn’t say there is something similar about using science. Science or the products of science like technology is just a way of achieving something real, something that happens, something that works. Richard Dawkins
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. Richard Dawkins
It’s known that stress gives rise to disease. It’s also known that many diseases, especially stress related diseases, can be cured by placebos pills that have no medicinal effect, but people think they do, and so they do. Richard Dawkins
Faith is one of the world’s great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate. Richard Dawkins
The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity. Richard Dawkins
Such delusions of grandeur to think that a God with a hundred billion galaxies on his mind would give a tuppenny damn who you sleep with, or indeed whether you believe in him. Richard Dawkins
What you cannot have is a gene that sacrifices itself for the benefit of other genes. What you can have is a gene that makes organisms sacrifice themselves for other organisms under the influence of selfish genes. Richard Dawkins
The solution often turns out more beautiful than the puzzle. Richard Dawkins
Religion has been a powerful weapon in the hands of governments, in the hands of priests, in the hands of kings who have used it as a weapon to keep down the populace. It is a wonderful way of disciplining people and making them do what you want, to tell them that if they don’t do what you want they will, for example, go to Hell. Richard Dawkins
The time has come for people to say: Enough is Enough! Religious faith discourages independent thought, it’s divisive and it’s dangerous. Richard Dawkins
There’s a natural tendency for children to, in some sense, inherit the cultural values of their parents. I’m not against that, that’s fine, that’s wonderful. What I am against is labeling. Nobody ever labels a child a cricketer because his father is a cricketer, but they do label a child a Catholic because his parents are Catholic. I think it’s more or less unique. Nobody ever labels a child a socialist or a conservative or a liberal because that’s what their parents are. Richard Dawkins
Faith is the great cop out, the great excuse to evade the need to think. Richard Dawkins
I’d like everybody to be secular. I suppose I have to say politically I would like religion to become gentler and nicer and to stop interfering with other people’s lives, stop repressing women, stop indoctrinating children, all that sort of thing. But I really, really would like to see religion go away altogether. Richard Dawkins
It’s a horrible idea that God, this paragon of wisdom and knowledge, power, couldn’t think of a better way to forgive us our sins than to come down to Earth in his alter ego as his son and have himself hideously tortured and executed so that he could forgive himself. Richard Dawkins
Some sort of belief in all powerful supernatural beings is common, if not universal. A tendency to obey authority, perhaps especially in children, a tendency to believe what you’re told, a tendency to fear your own death, a tendency to wish to see your loved ones who have died, to wish to see them again, a wish to understand where you came from, where the world came from, all these psychological predispositions, under the right cultural conditions, tend to lead to people believing in things for which there is no evidence. Richard Dawkins
The idea of a divine creator belittles the elegant reality of the universe. Richard Dawkins
How thoughtful of God to arrange matters so that, wherever you happen to be born, the local religion always turns out to be the true one. Richard Dawkins
Myths are fun, as long as you don’t confuse them with the truth. Richard Dawkins
Religion is a powerful weapon that can be used because it persuades people to do things. And thus it can be used for good or ill. But it should not be a powerful weapon at all. Richard Dawkins
On one planet earth, and possibly only one planet in the entire universe, molecules that would normally make nothing more complicated than a chunk of rock, gather themselves together into chunks of rock sized matter of such staggering complexity that they are capable of running, jumping, swimming, flying, seeing, hearing, capturing and eating other such animated chunks of complexity; capable in some cases of thinking and feeling, and falling in love with yet other chunks of complex matter. Richard Dawkins
Faith can be very very dangerous, and deliberately to implant it into the vulnerable mind of an innocent child is a grievous wrong. Richard Dawkins
You believe that all humanity came from Adam and Eve, and humans have not evolved at all since. So tell me; between the two of them, which was black, which was white, and which was Asian? Richard Dawkins
My love of truth and honesty forces me to notice that the liberal intelligentsia of Western countries is betraying itself where Islam is concerned. Richard Dawkins
If there is a God, it’s going to be a whole lot bigger and a whole lot more incomprehensible than anything that any theologian of any religion has ever proposed. Richard Dawkins
I could easily believe that religion could enhance health and hence survival and that therefore there could be indeed be literally Darwinian survival value, Darwinian selection in favor of religion. None of that, of course, bears at all upon the truth value of the claims made by religions. Richard Dawkins
It often turns out on closer inspection that acts of apparent altruism are really selfishness in disguise. Richard Dawkins
Religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end. Richard Dawkins
Natural selection is the blind watchmaker, blind because it does not see ahead, does not plan consequences, has no purpose in view. Yet the living results of natural selection overwhelmingly impress us with the appearance of design as if by a master watchmaker, impressing us with the illusion of design and planning. Richard Dawkins
A designer God cannot be used to explain organized complexity because any God capable of designing anything would have to be complex enough to demand the same kind of explanation in his own right. Richard Dawkins
Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as well. Richard Dawkins , Richard Dawkins quotes on evolution
My point is not that religion itself is the motivation for wars, murders, and terrorist attacks, but that religion is the principal label, and the most dangerous one, by which a they as opposed to a we can be identified at all. Richard Dawkins
Scientific beliefs are supported by evidence, and they get results. Myths and faiths are not and do not. Richard Dawkins
If I were God wanting to make a human being, I would do it by a more direct way rather than by evolution. Why deliberately set it up in the one way which makes it look as though you don’t exist? Richard Dawkins
Today the theory of evolution is about as much open to doubt as the theory that the earth goes round the sun. Richard Dawkins
God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or infective power, in the environment provided by human culture. Richard Dawkins
Don’t ask God to cure cancer and world poverty. He’s too busy finding you a parking space and fixing the weather for your barbecue. Richard Dawkins
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. Richard Dawkins
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. Richard Dawkins
I think we certainly benefit from social institutions which encourage us towards moral behavior. It’s very important to have law. It’s very important to have a moral education. Richard Dawkins
It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane or wicked, but I’d rather not consider that. Richard Dawkins
I am thrilled to be alive at time when humanity is pushing against the limits of understanding. Even better, we may eventually discover that there are no limits. Richard Dawkins
Sometimes in life it is a good idea to stop, sometimes it is a good idea to go on. The trick is to decide when to stop Richard Dawkins , Richard Dawkins quotes on life
The majority of children born into the world tend to inherit the beliefs of their parents, and that to me is one of the most regrettable facts of them all. Richard Dawkins
Let children learn about different faiths, let them notice their incompatibility, and let them draw their own conclusions about the consequences of that incompatibility. As for whether they are ‘valid,’ let them make up their own minds when they are old enough to do so. Richard Dawkins
By all means let’s be open minded, but not so open minded that our brains drop out. Richard Dawkins
The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver. It is truly one of the things that make life worth living and it does so, if anything, more effectively if it convinces us that the time we have for living is quite finite. Richard Dawkins
Let children learn about different faiths, let them notice their incompatibility, and let them draw their own conclusions about the consequences of that incompatibility. As for whether they are ‘valid,’ let them make up their own minds when they are old enough to do so. Richard Dawkins
Science is the poetry of reality. Richard Dawkins
You can never be absolutely certain that anything doesn’t exist. But you can show that it’s unlikely. Richard Dawkins
Faith is the great cop out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence. Richard Dawkins
Commonsense lets us down because commonsense evolved in a world where nothing moves very fast, and nothing is very small or very large; the mundane world of the familiar. Richard Dawkins
It’s a truly disgusting idea that the creator of the universe capable of inventing the laws of physics and designing the evolutionary process that this protégé of supernatural intellect couldn’t think of a better way to forgive our sins than to have himself tortured to death. Richard Dawkins
It has become almost a cliche to remark that nobody boasts of ignorance of literature, but it is socially acceptable to boast ignorance of science and proudly claim incompetence in mathematics. Richard Dawkins
Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish. Richard Dawkins
There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point. The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it. Richard Dawkins
Of course you can have an opinion about Islam without having read the Qur’an. You don’t have to read Mein Kampf to have an opinion about Nazism. Richard Dawkins
Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one. Richard Dawkins
What I can’t understand is why you can’t see the extraordinary beauty of the idea that life started from nothing that is such a staggering, elegant, beautiful thing, why would you want to clutter it up with something so messy as a God? Richard Dawkins
Let us try to teach generosity and altruism because we are born selfish. Richard Dawkins
An atheist is just somebody who feels about Yahweh the way any decent Christian feels about Thor or Baal or the golden calf. We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. Richard Dawkins
Some people find clarity threatening. They like muddle, confusion, obscurity. So when somebody does no more than speak clearly it sounds threatening. Richard Dawkins
Faith can be very very dangerous, and deliberately to implant it into the vulnerable mind of an innocent child is a grievous wrong. Richard Dawkins
Human beings are just gene machines. Richard Dawkins
Do you really mean the only reason you try to be good is to gain God’s approval and reward? That’s not morality, that’s just sucking up. Richard Dawkins
The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver. Richard Dawkins
Next time that somebody tells you something is true, why not say to them: ‘What kind of evidence is there for that?’ And if they can’t give you a good answer, I hope you’ll think very carefully before you believe a word they say. Richard Dawkins
Science is the poetry of reality. Richard Dawkins
For the first half of geological time our ancestors were bacteria. Most creatures still are bacteria, and each one of our trillions of cells is a colony of bacteria. Richard Dawkins
The less you think, the more you believe. Richard Dawkins
Science has eradicated smallpox, can immunize against most previously deadly viruses, and can kill most previously deadly bacteria. Theology has done nothing but talk of pestilence as the wages of sin. Richard Dawkins
Faith is belief without evidence and reason; coincidentally that’s also the definition of delusion. Richard Dawkins
The truth is more magical in the best and most exciting sense of the word than any myth or made up mystery or miracle. Science has its own magic: the magic of reality. Richard Dawkins
Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose. Richard Dawkins
Evolution has no long term goal. There is no long distance target, no final perfection to serve as a criterion for selection, although human vanity cherishes the absurd notion that our species is the final goal of evolution. Richard Dawkins
Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings. Richard Dawkins
Religious faith, is a state of mind, that leads people to believe in something, it doesn’t matter what, without a whisper of doubt, or a whiff of evidence, and believe so strongly in some cases, that they are prepare to kill and die for it, without the need for further justification. Richard Dawkins
Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you. Richard Dawkins
Those who wish to base their morality literally on the Bible have either not read it or not understood it. Richard Dawkins
Religion ends and philosophy begins, just as alchemy ends and chemistry begins, and astrology ends and astronomy begins. Richard Dawkins
I have found it an amusing strategy, when asked whether I am an atheist, to point out that the questioner is also an atheist when considering Zeus, Apollo, Amon Ra, Mithras, Baal, Thor, Wotan, the Golden Calf and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I just go one god further. Richard Dawkins
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. Richard Dawkins
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. Richard Dawkins
We’re going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Richard Dawkins
The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity. Richard Dawkins
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. Richard Dawkins
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. Richard Dawkins
Scientific rationalism is the crowning glory of the human spirit. Richard Dawkins
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. Richard Dawkins , Richard Dawkins quotes on god
It is a remarkable coincidence that almost everyone has the same religion as their parents and it always just so happens they’re the right religion. Richard Dawkins
The take home message is that we should blame religion itself, not religious extremism as though that were some kind of terrible perversion of real, decent religion. Voltaire got it right long ago: ‘Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.’ So did Bertrand Russell: ‘Many people would sooner die than think. In fact, they do. Richard Dawkins
Don’t ask God to cure cancer and world poverty. He’s too busy finding you a parking space and fixing the weather for your barbecue. Richard Dawkins
If you listen to two people who are arguing about something, and they each of them have passionate faith that they’re right, but they believe different things they belong to different religions, different faiths, there is nothing they can do to settle their disagreement short of shooting each other, which is what they very often actually do. Richard Dawkins
Blasphemy is a Victimless Crime. Richard Dawkins
If something is true, no amount of wishful thinking will change it. Richard Dawkins
The chicken is only an egg’s way for making another egg. Richard Dawkins
Being dead will be no different from being unborn I shall be just as I was in the time of William the Conqueror or the dinosaurs or the trilobites. There is nothing to fear in that. Richard Dawkins
If something is true, no amount of wishful thinking will change it. Richard Dawkins
The chicken is only an egg’s way for making another egg. Richard Dawkins
By all means let’s be open minded, but not so open minded that our brains drop out. Richard Dawkins
It has become almost a cliché to remark that nobody boasts of ignorance of literature, but it is socially acceptable to boast ignorance of science and proudly claim incompetence in mathematics. Richard Dawkins
The Universe does not owe us meaning. Richard Dawkins
I am not an enthusiast for diversity of opinion where facts are concerned. Richard Dawkins
Blindness to suffering is an inherent consequence of natural selection. Nature is neither kind nor cruel but indifferent. Richard Dawkins
I can’t be sure God does not exist. On a scale of seven, where one means I know he exists, and seven I know he doesn’t, I call myself a six. That doesn’t mean I’m absolutely confident, that I absolutely know, because I don’t. Richard Dawkins
Science is interesting, and if you don’t agree, you can f**k off. Richard Dawkins
Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent. This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose. Richard Dawkins
Religion is the root of quite a lot of evil. Richard Dawkins
By all means let’s be open minded, but not so open minded that our brains drop out. Richard Dawkins
Creationism: God’s gift to the ignorant. Richard Dawkins
Organizing atheists is a bit like herding cats; They are on the whole too intelligent and independent minded to lend themselves to being herded. Richard Dawkins
