If the history of resistance to Darwinian thinking is a good measure, we can expect that long into the future, long after every triumph of human thought has been matched or surpassed by 'mere machines,' there will still be thinkers who insist that the human mind works in mysterious ways that no science can comprehend.
Daniel DennettThe best thing about saying thank goodness in place of thank God this that here really are lots of ways of repaying your debt of goodness - by setting to create more of it, for the benefit of those to come.
Daniel DennettHuman freedom is not an illusion; it is an objective phenomenon, distinct from all other biological conditions and found in only one species - us.
Daniel DennettPeople are afraid of being more ignorant than their childrenโespecially, apparantly, their daughters.
Daniel DennettMost people in the West who say they believe in God actually believe in belief in God.
Daniel DennettHas it ever occurred to you how lucky you are to be alive? More than 99 percent of all the creatures that have ever lived have died without progeny, but not a single one of your ancestors falls into that group! ... Not a single one of your ancestors, all the way back to the bacteria, succumbed to predation before reproducing, or lost out in the competition for a mate.
Daniel Dennett