Richard Dawkins Quotes About Evil

Quotes about: Evil

• Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent. This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous-indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose.

  Richard Dawkins

  Nature, Learning, Science

  Richard Dawkins (1995). “River out of eden: a Darwinian view of life”, Basic Books (AZ)

• 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.

  Richard Dawkins

  Funny, Sarcastic, Atheist

  River Out of Eden ch. 4 (1995)

• To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and 'improved' by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to each other, spanning nine centuries

  Richard Dawkins

  Biblical, Editors, Evil

  Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.268, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Faith is an evil precisely because it requires no justification and brooks no argument.

  Richard Dawkins

  Evil, Religion, Atheism

  Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.347, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Faith is one of the world's great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate.

  Richard Dawkins

  Mad Cow Disease, Evil, Religion

  "Is Science a Religion?". Humanist, www.skeptical-science.com. January/February 1997.

• The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all species are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.

  Richard Dawkins

  Running, Animal, Years

  "River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life". Book by Richard Dawkins, 1995.

• If the universe were just electrons and selfish genes, meaningless tragedies ... are exactly what we should expect, along with equally meaningless good fortune. Such a universe would be neither evil nor good in intention ... The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.

  Richard Dawkins

  Selfish, Evil, Design

• The human psyche has two great sicknesses: the urge to carry vendetta across generations, and the tendency to fasten group labels on people rather than see them as individuals.

  Richard Dawkins

  Two, Evil, People

  Richard Dawkins (2004). “A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love”, p.160, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Bush and bin Laden are really on the same side: the side of faith and violence against the side of reason and discussion. Both have implacable faith that they are right and the other is evil.

  Richard Dawkins

  Evil, Political, Violence

  "The Atheist". Interview with Gordy Slack, www.salon.com. April 30, 2005.

• If you want to do evil, science provides the most powerful weapons to do evil; but equally, if you want to do good, science puts into your hands the most powerful tools to do so

  Richard Dawkins

  Powerful, Hands, Evil

  "Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder". Richard Dimbleby Lecture on BBC1 Television, www.edge.org. November 12, 1996.

• My passion is for scientific truth. I don't much care about good and evil. ... I care about what's true.

  Richard Dawkins

  Passion, Evil, Care

• Bush and bin Laden are really on the same side: the side of faith and violence against the side of reason and discussion. Both have implacable faith that they are right and the other is evil. Each believes that when he dies he is going to heaven. Each believes that if he could kill the other, his path to paradise in the next world would be even swifter. The delusional "next world" is welcome to both of them. This world would be a much better place without either of them.

  Richard Dawkins

  Believe, Evil, Heaven

  "The Atheist". Interview with Gordy Slack, www.salon.com. April 30, 2005.

• 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

• Religion is the root of quite a lot of evil.

  Richard Dawkins

  Roots, Evil, Religion

• That there is a continuous link from humans to gorillas, with the intermediate species merely long dead, is beyond the understanding of speciesists. Tie the label Homo sapiens even to a tiny piece of insensible embryonic tissue, and its life suddenly leaps to infinite, incomputable value.... Self-styled pro-lifers, and others that indulge in footling debates about exactly when in its development a foetus becomes human, exhibit the same discontinuous mentality. Human, to the discontinuous mind, is an absolutist concept. There can be no half measures. And from this flows much evil.

  Richard Dawkins

  Self, Indulge In, Ties

• I need to learn not to bend over backwards to be nice to faith-heads. Give these people an inch and they take a league. I think, as I did when I wrote The God Delusion, that the Roman Catholic Church is a disgusting institution, the second most evil religion in the world.

  Richard Dawkins

  Nice, Thinking, People

  "Divine dispatches: a religion roundup" Riazat Butt, www.theguardian.com. April 28, 2011.

• Religion is not the root of all evil, for no one thing is the root of all anything.

  Richard Dawkins

  Roots, Evil, One Thing

  Richard Dawkins (2008). “The God Delusion”, p.23, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Evil…doesn’t mean doing things that have bad consequences for people. It means private thoughts and actions that are not to “the Christian majority’s” private liking.

  Richard Dawkins

  Christian, Atheist, Mean

  Richard Dawkins (2009). “The God Delusion”, p.328, Random House

• You can't blame science for being used for evil purposes. What you can do is say, 'This is an exceedingly powerful tool.' And you want to make sure it is used for good purposes, not bad ones. That is a political decision.

  Richard Dawkins

  Powerful, Evil, Decision

  Source: www.newrepublic.com

• The whole of technology depends on a scientific background, and of course technology can be used for evil purposes. You can't blame science for that.

  Richard Dawkins

  Technology, Evil, Purpose

  Source: newrepublic.com

• Good and evil - I don't believe that there is hanging out there, anywhere, something called good and something called evil.

  Richard Dawkins

  Believe, Evil, Hanging Out

  Source: inters.org

• If it is solely an evolutionary convenience, there is really no such thing as good or evil.

  Richard Dawkins

  Evil, Convenience, Ifs

  Source: inters.org

• It is fashionable to wax apocalyptic about the threat to humanity posed by the AIDS virus, "mad cow" disease, and many others, but I think a case can be made that faith is one of the world's great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate.

  Richard Dawkins

  Thinking, Mad Cow Disease, Evil

  "Is Science a Religion?". Humanist, www.skeptical-science.com. January/February 1997.

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