Human consciousness is just about the last surviving mystery.

The traditional view of purpose says it comes from on high, from God, from the Creator. Darwin's idea of natural selection makes people uncomfortable because it reverses the direction of tradition. Whereas people used to think of meaning coming from on high and being ordained from the top down, now we have Darwin saying, "No, all of this design can happen, all of this purpose can emerge from the bottom up without any direction at all."

In the beginning, there were no reasons; there were only causes. Nothing had a purpose, nothing has so much as a function; there was no teleology in the world at all.

Minds 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.

Religions have depended on the relative isolation and ignorance of their flocks, forever and this is all breaking down.

A child raised on a desert island, alone, without social interaction, without language, and thus lacking empathy, is still a sentient being.

Most people in the West who say they believe in God actually believe in belief in God.