People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs.

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group.

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

Writing a novel is like trying to solve a very long mathematical equation. Changing anything can change everything else.

Who will speak for Planet Earth?

One trend that bothers me is the glorification of stupidity, that the media is reassuring people it's alright not to know anything. That to me is far more dangerous than a little pornography on the Internet.

There are many hypotheses in physics of almost comparable brillance and elegance that have been rejected because they did not survive such a confrontation with experiment. In my view, the human condition would be greatly improved if such confrontations and willingness to reject hypotheses were a regular part of our social, political, economic, religious and cultural lives.