We all trust each other to some extent. We have to rely on experts to some extent, but we should learn to be sceptical.

Whatever the evolutionary basis of religion, the xenophobia it now generates is clearly maladaptive.

What science is all about is a process. It's like saying, "Well, is it important for people to know that World War II happened?" Well it's part of what makes us who we are. And so, there's basic bits of science we need to know.

The real thing that physics tell us about the universe is that it's big, rare event happens all the time — including life — and that doesn't mean it's special.

We should provide the meaning of the universe in the meaning of our own lives. So I think science doesn't necessarily have to get in the way of kind of spiritual fulfillment.

The illusion of purpose and design is perhaps the most pervasive illusion about nature that science has to confront on a daily basis.

We now know that we are more insignificant than we ever imagined. If you get rid of everything we see, the universe is essentially the same. We constitute a 1 percent bit of pollution in a universe . . . we are completely irrelevant.