In all mammalian species that have so far been carefully studied, the rate at which their members engage in the killing of conspecifics is several thousand times greater than the highest homicide rate in any American city.
Daniel DennettThose who feel guilty contemplating "betraying" the tradition they love by acknowledging their disapproval of elements within it should reflect on the fact that the very tradition to which they are so loyalโthe "eternal" tradition introduced to them in their youthโis in fact the evolved product of many adjustments firmly but delicately made by earlier lovers of the same tradition.
Daniel DennettMinds are in limited supply, and each mind has a limited capacity for memes, and hence there is considerable competition among memes for entry in as many minds as possible.
Daniel DennettReasons for declaring belief is not are not the same as reasons for believing in god.
Daniel DennettMy faith in the expertise of physicists like Richard Feynman, for instance, permits me to endorseโand, if it comes to it, bet heavily on the truth ofโa proposition that I don't understand. So far, my faith is not unlike religious faith, but I am not in the slightest bit motivated to go to my death rather than recant the formulas of physics. Watch: E doesn't equal mc2, it doesn't, it doesn't! I was lying, so there!
Daniel Dennett