Has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? . . . No other human institution comes close.

Cleverly designed experiments are the key.

That we can now think of no mechanism for astrology is relevant but unconvincing. No mechanism was known, for example, for continental drift when it was proposed by Wegener. Nevertheless, we see that Wegener was right, and those who objected on the grounds of unavailable mechanism were wrong.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method.

The fossil record implies trial and error, an inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with an efficient Great Designer (although not with a Designer of a more remote and indirect temperament)

Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.