We should take astrology seriously. No, I don’t mean we should believe in it. I am talking about fighting it seriously instead of humouring it as a piece of harmless fun. – Richard Dawkins
Many people want to send their children to faith schools because they get good exam results, but they’re not foolish enough to believe that it’s because of faith that they get good exam results. – Richard Dawkins
We humans are an extremely important manifestation of the replication bomb, because it is through us – through our brains, our symbolic culture and our technology – that the explosion may proceed to the next stage and reverberate through deep space. – Richard Dawkins
At the deepest level, all living things that have ever been looked at have the same DNA code. And many of the same genes. – Richard Dawkins
There are quite a lot of YouTube clips of me that have gone viral. One that I think of is of a young woman at a lecture I was giving – she came from Liberty University, which is a ludicrous religious institution. She said, ‘What if you are wrong?’ and I answered that rather briefly, and that’s gone viral. – Richard Dawkins
Religion is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness. – Richard Dawkins
At least the fundamentalists haven’t tried to dilute their message. Their faith is exposed for what it is for all to see. – Richard Dawkins
The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry. – Richard Dawkins
I accept that there may be things far grander and more incomprehensible than we can possibly imagine. – Richard Dawkins
I am baffled by the way sophisticated theologians who know Adam and Eve never existed still keep talking about it. – Richard Dawkins
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. – Richard Dawkins
Nico Tinbergen was my doctoral supervisor, and he was a benign, avuncular sort of influence; everybody loved him. – Richard Dawkins
Religious fanatics want people to switch off their own minds, ignore the evidence, and blindly follow a holy book based upon private ‘revelation’. – Richard Dawkins
How any government could promote the Vardy academies in the North-East of England is absolutely beyond me. Tony Blair defends them on grounds of diversity, but it should be unthinkable in the 21st century to have a school whose head of science believes the world is less than 10,000 years old. – Richard Dawkins
It would be intolerant if I advocated the banning of religion, but of course I never have. – Richard Dawkins
I am very conscious that you can’t condemn people of an earlier era by the standards of ours. – Richard Dawkins
Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence. – 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 do sometimes accuse people of ignorance, but that is not intended to be an insult. I’m ignorant of lots of things. Ignorance is something that can be remedied by education. – Richard Dawkins
The history of science has been one long series of violent brainstorms, as successive generations have come to terms with increasing levels of queerness in the universe. – Richard Dawkins
I do feel visceral revulsion at the burka because for me it is a symbol of the oppression of women. – Richard Dawkins
The obvious objections to the execution of Saddam Hussein are valid and well aired. His death will provoke violent strife between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and between Iraqis in general and the American occupation forces. – 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
Bereavement is terrible, of course. And when somebody you love dies, it’s a time for reflection, a time for memory, a time for regret. – Richard Dawkins