Indeed, organizing atheists has been compared to herding cats, because they tend to think independently and will not conform to authority.

The beauty of evolution is that it does provide an explanation of how you can get complexity out of simplicity. It does it by slow, gradual degree. At no point are you postulating the sudden coming into existence of a complicated being.

Part of the appeal was that Medawar was not only a Nobel Laureate, but he seemed like a Nobel Laureate; he was everything one thought a Nobel Laureate ought to be. If you have ever wondered why scientists like Popper, try Medawar's exposition. Actually most Popperian scientists have probably never tried reading anything but Medawar's exposition.

Science is wonderful, science is important, and so are children, so are young people, and so what could be better than to write a science book for young people?

We have seen that living things are too improbable and too beautifully 'designed' to have come into existence by chance.

Blindness to suffering is an inherent consequence of natural selection. Nature is neither kind nor cruel but indifferent.

No doubt soaring cathedrals, stirring music, moving stories and parables, help a bit. But by far the most important variable determining your religion is the accident of birth.