Evolution Quotes - Page 21

• We are at a crossroads in human history. Never before has there been a moment so simultaneously perilous and promising. We are the first species to have taken evolution into our own hands.

  Carl Sagan

  Taken, Hands, Firsts

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.47, Ballantine Books

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• The proof given by Wright, that non-adaptive differentiation will occur in small populations owing to "drift," or the chance fixation of some new mutation or recombination, is one of the most important results of mathematical analysis applied to the facts of neo-mendelism. It gives accident as well as adaptation a place in evolution, and at one stroke explains many facts which puzzled earlier selectionists, notably the much greater degree of divergence shown by island than mainland forms, by forms in isolated lakes than in continuous river-systems.

  Julian Huxley

  Science, Rivers, Lakes

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• Part of what makes a language 'alive' is its constant evolution. I would hate to think Britain would ever emulate France, where they actually have a learned faculty whose job it is to attempt to prevent the incursion of foreign words into the language. I love editing Harry with Arthur Levine, my American editor-the differences between 'British English' (of which there must be at least 200 versions) and 'American English' (ditto!) are a source of constant interest and amusement to me.

  J. K. Rowling

  Wise, Witty, Jobs

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• On the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out on how God created the Earth.

  George W. Bush

  Issues, Religion, Atheism

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• There are a lot of very brilliant scholars who believe the reason we have incomplete science on evolution is that there is a higher power involved in this.

  Bill O'Reilly

  Believe, Religion, Atheism

  "Discovery Phase" by Chris Mooney, prospect.org. January 31, 2005.

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• I did not know from a scientific perspective why I did not believe in evolution - but I knew from a Biblical perspective it had to be wrong or my faith was in trouble.

  Ken Ham

  Believe, Biblical, Perspective

  Ken Ham (2012). “Lie: Evolution, The (25th Anniversary Edition): The Lie: Evolution/Millions of Years”, p.18, New Leaf Publishing Group

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• I am not advocating a morality based on evolution.

  Richard Dawkins

  Religion, Atheism, Morality

  Richard Dawkins (2016). “The Selfish Gene”, p.3, Oxford University Press

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• You cannot be both sane and well educated and disbelieve in evolution. The evidence is so strong that any sane, educated person has got to believe in evolution.

  Richard Dawkins

  Strong, Believe, Religion

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• Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as well.

  Richard Dawkins

  Ignorance, Simple, Religion

  "Should Religion Impact Your Vote?" by Roy Speckhardt, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 7, 2011.

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• The distribution of species on islands and continents throughout the world is exactly what you'd expect if evolution was a fact. The distribution of fossils in space and in time are exactly what you would expect if evolution were a fact. There are millions of facts all pointing in the same direction and no facts pointing in the wrong direction.

  Richard Dawkins

  Space, Islands, Religion

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• 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.

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• [Creationists have] lost in the courts of law; they've long ago lost in the halls of science; and they continue to lose with every new piece of evidence in support of evolution. Taking offense is all they've got left.

  Richard Dawkins

  Long Ago, Law, Support

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• The concept of God is generated by a brain designed by evolution to find design in nature (a very recursive idea).

  Michael Shermer

  Ideas, Design, Brain

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• Evolution ... is opportunistic, hence unpredictable.

  Ernst Mayr

  Religion, Atheism, Unpredictable

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• Odd arrangements and funny solutions are the proof of evolution - paths that a sensible God would never tread but that a natural process, constrained by history, follows perforce.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Religion, Atheism, Path

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• [Evolution is] one of the best documented, most compelling and exciting concepts in all of science.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Religion, Atheism, Exciting

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• In fact, nothing in science as a whole has been more firmly established by interwoven factual information, or more illuminating than the universal occurrence of biological evolution. Further, few natural processes have been more convincingly explained than evolution by the theory of natural selection, or as it has been popularly called, Darwinism.

  E. O. Wilson

  Religion, Atheism, Information

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• 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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• But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created that a cat should play with mice.

  Charles Darwin

  Cat, Play, Design

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.28, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The genes hold culture on a leash. The leash is very long, but inevitably values will be constrained in accordance with their effects on the human gene pool. The brain is a product of evolution. Human behavior-like the deepest capacities for emotional respone which drive and guide it-is the circuitous technique by which human genetic material has been and will be kept intact.

  E. O. Wilson

  Science, Emotional, Long

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• We have vexed and bothered every plant and every animal on every continent.

  Diane Ackerman

  Animal, Plant, Bothered

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• For millions of years, on average, one species became extinct every century.... We are now heaving more than a thousand different species of animals and plants off the planet every year.

  Douglas Adams

  Animal, Average, Years

  Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine (2013). “Last Chance To See”, p.275, Random House

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• Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely and who rely on you in return.

  John McCain

  People, Return, Causes

  John McCain, Mark Salter (2000). “Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir”, p.278, Random House

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• My father used to say that, through culture, humans effectively domesticated themselves.

  Richard Leakey

  Father, Culture, Used

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• From first to last it is a dish of rank materialism cleverly cooked up ... . And why is this done? For no other reason, I am sure, except to make us independent of a Creator.

  Adam Sedgwick

  Independent, Lasts, Firsts

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