Clinton Richard Dawkins was born in 1941 in Nairobi, Kenya. By profession he is an ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and writer. He was the University of Oxford’s Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008.
He is now best known for being a leading atheist and his criticism of the concepts of creationism and intelligent design.
Many of Richard Dawkins’ thoughts are encapsulated in the quotes we have selected.
He has written a number of scientific books, but his best seller is without doubt ‘The God Delusion’, which was published in 2006. Since then, the English language version has sold more than 2 million copies, and the book has been translated into 31 languages.
He is seen frequently in the media arguing for his views, but belief is belief.
Checkout these quotes of Richard Dawkins to see if they are as extreme as some claim:
- By all means let’s be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
- Religion is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness.
- A delusion is something that people believe in despite a total lack of evidence.
- We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.
- Rather than say he’s an atheist, a friend of mine says, ‘I’m a tooth fairy agnostic’, meaning he can’t disprove God but thinks God is about as likely as the tooth fairy.
- Evil is a miscellaneous collection of nasty things that nasty people do.
- Natural selection is anything but random.
- How can you take seriously someone who likes to believe something because he finds it ‘comforting’?
- The universe doesn’t owe us condolence or consolation; it doesn’t owe us a nice warm feeling inside.
- If something is true, no amount of wishful thinking will change it.
- Why are we so obsessed with monogamous fidelity?
- I detest ‘Jingle Bells,’ ‘White Christmas,’ ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,’ and the obscene spending bonanza that nowadays seems to occupy not just December, but November and much of October, too.
- Evolution never looks to the future.
- I once wrote that anybody who believes the world is only 6,000 years old is either ignorant, stupid, insane or wicked.
- Nothing is wrong with peace and love. It is all the more regrettable that so many of Christ’s followers seem to disagree.
Have these Richard Dawkins’ quotes affected your thinking?
What do you feel about evolution? Are you a creationist?
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