Religion is unusual among divisive labels in being spectacularly unnecessary. If religious beliefs had any evidence going for them, we might have to respect them in spite of their concomitant unpleasantness. But there is no such evidence. To label people as death-deserving enemies because of disagreements about real world politics is bad enough. To do the same for disagreements about a delusional world inhabited by archangels, demons and imaginary friends is ludicrously tragic.

Evolution may explain some features of the moral law, but it can't explain why it should have any real significance.

I am agnostic only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at the bottom of the garden

The river of my title is a river of DNA, a river of information, not a river of bones and tissues

It's very important to try to inculcate into children moral rules, such as "do as you would be done by."

I'm fond of science fiction. But not all science fiction. I like science fiction where there's a scientific lesson, for example - when the science fiction book changes one thing but leaves the rest of science intact and explores the consequences of that. That's actually very valuable.

The Universe does not owe us meaning.