Richard Dawkins Quotes About Belief

Quotes about: Belief

• If children understand that beliefs should be substantiated with evidence, as opposed to tradition, authority, revelation or faith, they will automatically work out for themselves that they are atheists.

  Richard Dawkins

  Atheist, Children, Work Out

  "Richard Dawkins's backwards logic over atheist schooling" by Andrew Brown, www.theguardian.com. June 29, 2010.

• Scientific beliefs are supported by evidence, and they get results. Myths and faiths are not and do not.

  Richard Dawkins

  Atheist, Belief, Results

  Richard Dawkins (1995). “River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life”, Basic Books (AZ)

• 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

  Faith, Atheist, Thinking

  Richard Dawkins' Speech at the Edinburgh International Science Festival (April 15, 1992); quoted in "EDITORIAL: A scientist's case against God", "The Independent"(London), (p. 17), April 20, 1992.

• Faith is belief without evidence and reason; coincidentally that's also the definition of delusion.

  Richard Dawkins

  Faith, Definitions, Belief

• False beliefs can be every bit as consoling as true ones, right up until the moment of disillusionment.

  Richard Dawkins

  Belief, Moments, Consoling

  Richard Dawkins (2009). “The God Delusion”, p.398, Random House

• Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.

  Richard Dawkins

  Business, Believe, Power

  "The Root of All Evil?". Documentary, January 2006.

• My objection to supernatural beliefs is precisely that they miserably fail to do justice to the sublime grandeur of the real world. They represent a narrowing-down from reality, an impoverishment of what the real world has to offer.

  Richard Dawkins

  Real, Justice, Sublime

  Richard Dawkins (2016). “The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution”, p.700, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• 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

  Children, Parent, Religion

• Any belief in miracles is flat contradictory not just to the facts of science but to the spirit of science.

  Richard Dawkins

  Miracle, Facts, Spirit

  Source: inters.org

• I do believe that nice religious people make the world safe for extremists by teaching us [...] that faith is a virtue, teaching us that there's something good about holding beliefs without any substantiating evidence. Once you buy into that, [...] then the door is opened to extremists who defend their extremism by saying, 'Oh well, it's my faith, you can't touch it, you can't criticise my faith, I don't even need to defend it because faith is faith.'

  Richard Dawkins

  Religious, Nice, Believe

  "Richard Dawkins at the Sydney Writers' Festival". Interview with Robyn Williams, www.abc.net.au. September 8, 2007.

• Religion and science have nothing to do with each other, they're about different things, science is about the way the world works and religion is about [...] miracles. [...] And in any case, if you ask most ordinary people in church or in a mosque why they believe, it's almost certainly got something to do with the belief that God does wonderful things, that God intervenes, that God heals the sick, that God answers prayers, God forgives sins.

  Richard Dawkins

  Prayer, Believe, Mean

  "Richard Dawkins at the Sydney Writers' Festival". Interview with Robyn Williams, www.abc.net.au. September 8, 2007.

• Human psychology has a near universal tendency to let belief be coloured by desire.

  Richard Dawkins

  Psychology, Desire, Belief

  Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.221, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• People who believe in something for which there is not a shred of evidence act on that belief and, above all, impose their beliefs on others, they make me cross, and they make me especially cross when they impose their beliefs on defenceless children.

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Believe, People

  "Richard Dawkins at the Sydney Writers' Festival". Interview with Robyn Williams, www.abc.net.au. September 8, 2007.

• I think the important thing to learn is that we can retain a sentimental loyalty to the cultural and literary traditions of, say, Judaism, Anglicanism or Islam, and even participate in religious rituals such as marriages and funerals, without buying into the supernatural beliefs that historically went along with those traditions. We can give up belief in God while not losing touch with a treasured heritage.

  Richard Dawkins

  Loyalty, Religious, Business

• Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that.

  Richard Dawkins

  Science, People, Religion

  "Has the world changed?". The Guardian Interview, www.theguardian.com. October 11, 2001.

• Science shares with religion the claim that it answers deep questions about origins, the nature of life, and the cosmos. But there the resemblance ends. Scientific beliefs are supported by evidence, and they get results. Myths and faiths are not and do not.

  Richard Dawkins

  Religion, Atheism, Cosmos

  Richard Dawkins (1995). “River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life”, Basic Books (AZ)

• All religious beliefs seem weird to people not brought up in them.

  Richard Dawkins

  Religious, People, Religion

• A delusion that encourages belief where there is no evidence is asking for trouble. Disagreements between incompatible beliefs cannot be settled by reasoned argument because reasoned argument is drummed out of those trained in religion from the cradle. Instead, disagreements are settled by other means which, in extreme cases, inevitably become violent. Scientists disagree among themselves but they never fight over their disagreements. They argue about evidence or go out and seek new evidence. Much the same is true of philosophers, historians and literary critics.

  Richard Dawkins

  Mean, Fighting, Religion

  "The atheist". Interview with Gordy Slack, www.salon.com. May 1, 2005.

• Are science and religion converging? No. There are modern scientists whose words sound religious but whose beliefs, on close examination, turn out to be identical to those of other scientists who straightforwardly call themselves atheists.

  Richard Dawkins

  Religious, Atheist, Atheism

  Richard Dawkins (2004). “A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love”, p.146, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• …the Genesis story is just one that happened to have been adopted by one particular tribe of Middle Eastern herders. It has no more special status than the belief of a particular West African tribe that the world was created from the excrement of ants.

  Richard Dawkins

  Atheist, African Tribes, Special

  Richard Dawkins (1991). “The blind watchmaker”

• My thoughts, my beliefs, my feelings are all in my brain. My brain is going to rot.

  Richard Dawkins

  Feelings, Brain, Belief

• There's no point of having faith if you have evidence.

  Richard Dawkins

  Faith, Belief, Evidence

• Religion is unusual among divisive labels in being spectacularly unnecessary. If religious beliefs had any evidence going for them, we might have to respect them in spite of their concomitant unpleasantness. But there is no such evidence. To label people as death-deserving enemies because of disagreements about real world politics is bad enough. To do the same for disagreements about a delusional world inhabited by archangels, demons and imaginary friends is ludicrously tragic.

  Richard Dawkins

  Religious, Real, People

• I great difficulty having any respect for a religion that has so little confidence in the truth of its beliefs that it feels reduced to using threats in order to propagate those beliefs.

  Richard Dawkins

  Order, Religion, Littles

• I might respect you as a brilliant intellect, runner, musician or juggler. But respect your BELIEFS? Only if they're supported by evidence.

  Richard Dawkins

  Musician, Might, Belief

  Twitter post from Jun 21, 2014

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