Richard Dawkins Quotes About Children

Quotes about: Children

• Let children learn about different faiths, let them notice their incompatibility, and let them draw their own conclusions about the consequences of that incompatibility. As for whether they are ‘valid,’ let them make up their own minds when they are old enough to do so.

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Mind, Different

• Faith can be very very dangerous, and deliberately to implant it into the vulnerable mind of an innocent child is a grievous wrong.

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Mind, Vulnerable

• Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.

  Richard Dawkins

  Education, Atheist, Children

  Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.300, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• 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.

• There is no such thing as a Christian child: only a child of Christian parents.

  Richard Dawkins

  Christian, Children, Parent

  Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.18, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Christianity, just as much as Islam, teaches children that unquestioned faith is a virtue. You don't have to make the case for what you believe. If somebody announces that it is part of his faith, the rest of society, whether of the same faith, or another, or of none, is obliged, by ingrained custom, to "respect" it without question; respect it until the day it manifests itself in a horrible massacre like the destruction of the World Trade Center, or the London or Madrid bombings.

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Believe, Islam

• ...it is a telling fact that, the world over, the vast majority of children follow the religion of their parents rather than any of the other available religions.

  Richard Dawkins

  Death, Children, Parent

  Richard Dawkins (2004). “A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love”, p.136, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• I am persuaded that 'child abuse' is no exaggeration when used to describe what teachers and priests are doing to children whom they encourage to believe in something like...eternal hell.

  Richard Dawkins

  Teacher, Children, Believe

• 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

• No matter how much knowledge and wisdom you acquire during your life, not one jot will be passed on to your children by genetic means. Each new generation starts from scratch.

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Mean, Scratches

  Richard Dawkins (2016). “The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition”, p.45, Oxford University Press

• The Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the raising of Lazarus, even the Old Testament miracles, all are freely used for religious propaganda, and they are very effective with an audience of unsophisticates and children

  Richard Dawkins

  Religious, Children, Miracle

• It is immoral to brand children with religion. 'This is a Catholic child.' 'That is a Muslim child.' I want everyone to flinch when they hear such a phrase, just as they would if they heard, 'That is a Marxist child.'

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Catholic, Phrases

• What are all of us but self-reproducing robots? We have been put together by our genes and what we do is roam the world looking for a way to sustain ourselves and ultimately produce another robot child.

  Richard Dawkins

  Life, Children, Self

• 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

  Children, Believe, School

• 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.

• Who will say with confidence that sexual abuse is more permanently damaging to children than threatening them with the eternal and unquenchable fires of hell?

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Fire, Abuse

• If circumcision has any justification AT ALL, it should be medical only. Parents' religion is the worst of all reasons - pure child abuse.

  Richard Dawkins

  Atheist, Children, Parent

  Twitter post from Nov 19, 2013

• With so many mind-bytes to be downloaded, so many mental codons to be replicated, it is no wonder that child brains are gullible, open to almost any suggestion, vulnerable to subversion, easy prey to Moonies, Scientologists and nuns. Like immune-deficient patients, children are wide open to mental infections that adults might brush off without effort.

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Effort, Brain

  Richard Dawkins (2004). “A Devil's Chaplain”, p.129, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• I had always been scrupulously careful to avoid the smallest suggestion of infant indoctrination, which I think is ultimately responsible for much of the evil in the world. Others, less close to her, showed no such scruples, which upset me, as I very much wanted her, as I want all children, to make up her own mind freely when she became old enough to do so. I would encourage her to think, without telling her what to think.

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Thinking, Evil

  Richard Dawkins (2004). “A Devil's Chaplain”, p.241, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Nobody would seriously describe a tiny child as a Marxist child or an Anarchist child or a Post-modernist child. Yet children are routinely labelled with the religion of their parents. We need to encourage people to think carefully before labelling any child too young to know their own opinions and our adverts will help to do that.

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Thinking, People

• I do disapprove very strongly of labelling children, especially young children, as something like 'Catholic children' or 'Protestant children' or 'Islamic children.'

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Islamic, Catholic

• The assignment of purpose to everything is called teleology. Children are native teleologists, and many never grow out of it.

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Purpose, Assignments

  Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.210, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• However brief our time in the sun, if we waste a second of it, or complain that it is dull or barren or (like a child) boring, couldn't this be seen as a callous insult to those unborn trillions who will never even be offered life in the first place?

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Complaining, Dull

• No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it's surprising how many parents think that it's somehow fun to pass on this falsehood to their children...I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Fun, Believe

• I do think imagination is enormously valuable, and that children should be encouraged in their imagination. That's very true.

  Richard Dawkins

  Children, Thinking, Imagination

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