For me, moral questions such as stem-cell research turn upon whether suffering is caused. In this case, clearly none is. The embryos have no nervous system. But that's not an issue discussed publicly. The issue is, Are they human? If you are an absolutist moralist, you say, "These cells are human, and therefore they deserve some kind of special moral treatment."

Five per cent vision is better than no vision at all. Five per cent hearing is better than no hearing at all. Five per cent flight efficiency is better than no flight at all. It is thoroughly believable that every organ or apparatus that we actually see is the product of a smooth trajectory through animal space, a trajectory in which every intermediate stage assisted survival and reproduction.

Good and evil - I don't believe that there is hanging out there, anywhere, something called good and something called evil.

Why do more than 40 percent of Americans think that the Universe began after the domestication of the dog?

Religion teaches you to be satisfied with nonanswers. It’s a sort of crime against childhood.

The truly adult view [...] is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it. And we can make it very wonderful indeed.

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