What are all of us but self-reproducing robots? We have been put together by our genes and what we do is roam the world looking for a way to sustain ourselves and ultimately produce another robot child.

There could be something incredibly grand and incomprehensible and beyond our present understanding.

Real life seeks the gentle slopes at the back of Mount Improbable, while creationists are blind to all but the daunting precipice at the front.

I have never quite understood - and this is no doubt my failing - I never quite understood why you would read fiction to understand the human condition.

Scientific truth is too beautiful to be sacrificed for the sake of light entertainment or money. Astrology is an aesthetic affront. It cheapens astronomy, like using Beethoven for commercial jingles.

People really, really hate their religion being criticized. It's as though you've said they had an ugly face; they seem to identify personally with it.

Two religions cannot both be right, because they contradict each other, yet they can both be wrong.