The information you get from social media is not a substitute for academic discipline at all.

For me, the meaning of life is pretty clear: Living things strive to pass their genes into the future.

There are two ways to be rich: to have more or need less. It's estimated that we squander about 30 percent of our energy leaving the lights on, the refrigerator door open, and so on. Then there is the enormous amount of food that we expend huge amounts of energy to raise and then throw away.

No matter what you may believe spiritually or otherwise, the Earth is clearly not 6,000 or 10,000 years old.

I feel that I've often pointed out that there are countless aspects of life and nature that scientists and scientific thinkers cannot explain. Why the universe is accelerating in its expansion and what came before the Big Bang serve as compelling examples. The process of science provides a way to seek answers to those questions.

I say to the grown-ups, 'If you want to deny evolution and live in your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we've observed in the universe that's fine. But don't make your kids do it.'

How did we let an ideological resistance to inquiry become such a prominent part of our society?