Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things.

We are a very, very unusual species.

I am one of those scientists who feels that it is no longer enough just to get on and do science. We have to devote a significant proportion of our time and resources to defending it from deliberate attack from organised ignorance.

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.

I love romantic poetry.

I once wrote that anybody who believes the world is only 6,000 years old is either ignorant, stupid, insane or wicked.

The universe doesn't owe us condolence or consolation; it doesn't owe us a nice warm feeling inside.

The idea of an afterlife where you can be reunited with loved ones can be immensely consoling - though not to me.

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.

Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence.

I accept that there may be things far grander and more incomprehensible than we can possibly imagine.

Natural selection is anything but random.

Sometimes I think it's possible to mistake desire for clarity and talking in a no-nonsense way for aggression.

If ever there was a slamming of the door in the face of constructive investigation, it is the word miracle. To a medieval peasant, a radio would have seemed like a miracle.

At least the fundamentalists haven't tried to dilute their message. Their faith is exposed for what it is for all to see.

God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or infective power, in the environment provided by human culture.

I'm a cultural Christian in the same way many of my friends call themselves cultural Jews or cultural Muslims.

Segregation has no place in the education system.

I am very comfortable with the idea that we can override biology with free will.

It would be intolerant if I advocated the banning of religion, but of course I never have.