Richard Dawkins

"Consciousness appears to be a product of neural complexity, not something separate or mystical."

"The progress of science is measured by our ability to ask better questions, not by our answers."

"Atheism is merely the absence of belief in gods, not a comprehensive worldview or moral code."

"We are remarkably good at pattern recognition, which served us in the savanna but misleads us in the modern world."

"The laws of physics are not laws that somebody enforces; they are descriptions of how things actually behave."

"Memory is not a recording device but a reconstructive process vulnerable to distortion and false memory."

"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to us, yet it is far more comprehensible than we have any right to expect."

"Language shapes how we think, but it does not determine what we can think."

"Evolution produces not perfection but adequacy—organisms fit their environment well enough to survive and reproduce."

"The study of biology is the study of elegant solutions to engineering problems."

"We should pity people with sincere faith, as they have locked themselves into certainty on matters that deserve doubt."

"The universe is not required to conform to our intuitions about how it should be."

"Moral relativism is not the conclusion of atheism; in fact, atheists can develop robust ethical systems."

"The human brain is a product of natural selection, yet it is capable of understanding its own origins."

"Art and science are not opposed; both are ways of investigating and responding to reality."

"Our sense of fairness and justice likely evolved because cooperation benefits the group."

"The beauty of mathematics is that it describes patterns that exist in nature without anyone having put them there."

"We are capable of rational thought, and that capacity is our greatest evolutionary advantage and responsibility."

"Pantheism smuggles in god-belief through the back door by equating 'god' with 'the universe'."

"The fossil record provides compelling evidence for evolution when understood in the context of our limited sampling."

"Tolerance does not mean treating all ideas as equally valid; some ideas are simply better supported by evidence."

"We should celebrate the capacity of science to revise itself in light of new evidence."

"The problem with religious education is that it trains children to believe without questioning."

"Life has no inherent meaning—which is neither a tragic loss nor a liberation, simply a fact."

"Genes are selfish in the sense that they promote their own replication, not because they have conscious desires."

"The human capacity for cruelty is not something we must accept as inevitable but something we can work to overcome."

"There is more wonder in understanding how the eye actually evolved than in any mystical claim about creation."

"We should teach science not as a collection of facts but as a way of investigating the world."

"The universe has no need for consciousness to exist, yet consciousness has arisen nonetheless—and that is remarkable."

"Our sense of morality evolved to help us cooperate in small groups; extending it to larger societies requires conscious effort."