Richard Dawkins Quotes About Purpose

Quotes about: Purpose

• 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)

• Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose

  Richard Dawkins

  Giving, Purpose, Study

  Richard Dawkins (2015). “The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design”, p.13, W. W. Norton & Company

• Natural selection is the blind watchmaker, blind because it does not see ahead, does not plan consequences, has no purpose in view. Yet the living results of natural selection overwhelmingly impress us with the appearance of design as if by a master watchmaker, impress us with the illusion of design and planning.

  Richard Dawkins

  Atheist, Views, Design

  Richard Dawkins (2015). “The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design”, p.31, W. W. Norton & Company

• We are machines built by DNA whose purpose is to make more copies of the same DNA. ... This is exactly what we are for. We are machines for propagating DNA, and the propagation of DNA is a self-sustaining process. It is every living object's sole reason for living.

  Richard Dawkins

  Life, Science, Dna

• Presumably there is indeed no purpose in the ultimate fate of the cosmos, but do any of us really tie our life's hopes to the ultimate fate of the cosmos anyway? Of course we don't; not if we are sane. Our lives are ruled by all sorts of closer, warmer, human ambitions and perceptions.

  Richard Dawkins

  Ambition, Fate, Ties

  Richard Dawkins (2016). “The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition”, p.11, Oxford University Press

• 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

• Words are our servants, not our masters. For different purposes, we find it convenient to use words in different senses.

  Richard Dawkins

  Book, Purpose, Use

  Richard Dawkins (2015). “The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design”, p.13, W. W. Norton & Company

• Bertrand Russell used a hypothetical teapot in orbit about Mars for the same didactic purpose. You have to be agnostic about the teapot, but that doesn't mean you treat the likelihood of its existence as being on all fours with its non-existence.

  Richard Dawkins

  Mean, Atheism, Orbit

• Individuals are not stable things, they are fleeting. Chromosomes too are shuffled into oblivion, like hands of cards soon after they are dealt. But the cards themselves survive the shuffling. The cards are the genes. The genes are not destroyed by crossing-over, they merely change partners and march on. Of course they march on. That is their business. They are the replicators and we are their survival machines. When we have served our purpose we are cast aside. But genes are denizens of geological time: genes are forever.

  Richard Dawkins

  Hands, Forever, Survival

  Richard Dawkins (2016). “The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition”, p.56, Oxford University Press

• 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

• What is the purpose of the universe?" is a silly question.

  Richard Dawkins

  Silly, Purpose, Universe

  "Religion and Atheism". "Q&A" with Tony Jones, www.abc.net.au. April 9, 2012.

• We have to find our own purposes in life, which are not derived directly from our scientific history.

  Richard Dawkins

  Purpose, Purpose Of Life

  "Religion and Atheism". "Q&A" with Tony Jones, www.abc.net.au. April 9, 2012.

• 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

• I'm easily persuaded that a really good novelist who gets inside somebody else's head could be serving a valuable purpose. I enjoy satirical novels that take a wry, humorous, ironic look at modern life.

  Richard Dawkins

  Humorous, Ironic, Novelists

  Source: newrepublic.com

• Who are we to say that that was an odd way to do it? I don't think that it is God's purpose to make his intention absolutely obvious to us.

  Richard Dawkins

  Thinking, Purpose, Way

  Source: inters.org

• If you are asking me if my more global purpose is a battle against religion, it is.

  Richard Dawkins

  Battle, Purpose, Asking

  Source: www.macleans.ca

• 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

• Natural selection, the blind, unconscious, automatic process which Darwin discovered, and which we now know is the explanation forthe existence and apparently purposeful form of all life, has no purpose in mind. It has no mind and no mind's eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. If it can be said to play the role of the watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.

  Richard Dawkins

  Selfish, Eye, Sight

  The Blind Watchmaker ch. 1 (1986) See Paley 3

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