Religious faith not only lacks evidence, its independence from evidence is its pride and joy, shouted from the rooftops.

It would be intolerant if I advocated the banning of religion, but of course I never have.

Evolution is as much a fact as the heat of the sun.

Most of what we strive for in our modern life uses the apparatus of goal seeking that was originally set up to seek goals in the state of nature.

The Roman Catholic Church is an institution for whose gains the phrase "ill-gotten" might have been specially invented. And of all its money-making rip-offs, the selling of indulgences must surely rank among the greatest con tricks in history, the medieval equivalent of the Nigerian Internet scam but far more successful.

Textbooks describe DNA as a blueprint for a body. It's better seen as a recipe for making a body, because it is irreversible. But today I want to present it as something different again, and even more intriguing. The DNA in you is a coded description of ancient worlds in which your ancestors lived. DNA is the wisdom out of the old days, and I mean very old days indeed.

I remember at the age of six regaling my poor little sister with stories about the planets, and how far away they were and which ones might have life.