People believe in God because we are pattern-seeking, storytelling, mythmaking, religious, moral animals.

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

Science is not the affirmation of a set of beliefs but a process of inquiry aimed at building a testable body of knowledge constantly open to rejection or confirmation. In science, knowledge is fluid and certainty fleeting. That is at the heart of its limitations. It is also its greatest strength.

To be a fully functioning moral agent, one cannot passively accept moral principles handed down by fiat. Moral principles require moral reasoning.

We are a fluke of nature, a quirk of evolution, a glorious contingency.

Plato wove historical fact into literary myth.

The recent medical controversy over whether vaccinations cause autism reveals a habit of human cognition — thinking anecdotally comes naturally, whereas thinking scientifically does not.