Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.

A Hubble Space Telescope photograph of the universe evokes far more awe for creation than light streaming through a stained glass window in a cathedral.

Belief is the natural state of things. It is the default option. We just believe. We believe all sorts of things. Belief is natural; disbelief, skepticism, science, is not natural.

The whole point of faith, in fact, is to believe regardless of the evidence, which is the very antithesis of science.

Humans are, by nature, pattern-seeking, storytelling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns whether they exist or not.

The reason is that in a group, individual errors on either side of the true figure cancel each other out.

Darwin matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age, an epic saga about who we are, where we came from and where we are going.