However much the creationist leaders might hammer away at their scientific and philosophical points, they would be helpless and a laughing-stock if that were all they had. It is religion that recruits their squadrons. Tens of millions of Americans, who neither know nor understand the actual arguments for - of even against - evolution, march in the army of the night, their Bibles held high. And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason.

Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution had to be wisdom. You did not refuse to look at danger, rather you learned how to handle it safely.

Where any answer is possible, all answers are meaningless.

Humanity is cutting down its forests, apparently oblivious to the fact that we may not be able to live without them.

I don’t believe in extraordinary concatenations of coincidence.

Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.

Surely no child, and few adults, have ever watched a bird in flight without envy.