We want to be open-minded enough to accept radial new ideas when they occasionally come along, but we don't want to be so open-minded that our brains fall out.

We want to be special. We want our place in the cosmos to be central. We want evolution-even godless evolution-to have been directed toward us so that we stand at the pinnacle of nature's ladder of progress. Rewind the tape of life and we want to believe that we (Homo Sapiens) would appear again and again. Would we? Probably not.

The human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering.

In principle, skeptics are neither closed-minded nor cynical. We are curious but cautious.

Rationality tied to moral decency is the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known.

We want to be open-minded enough to accept radial new ideas when they occasionally come along, but we don't want to be so open-minded that our brains fall out.

But there is only one surefire method of proper pattern recognition, and that is science.