Gould carried the art of bending over backward to positively supine lengths. Why shouldn't we comment on God, as scientists? ... A universe with a creative superintendent would be a very different kind of universe from one without. Why is that not a scientific matter?

The solution often turns out more beautiful than the puzzle.

Ironically, I originally wrote the tweet with Jews and thought, That might give offense. And so I thought I better change it.

I am trying to call attention to the elephant in the room that everybody is too polite - or too devout - to notice: religion, and specifically the devaluing effect that religion has on human life.

I am at a loss to reconcile the expensive and glossy production values of this book with the breathtaking inanity of the content.

Evolution has been observed. It's just that it hasn't been observed while it's happening.

The take-home message is that we should blame religion itself, not religious extremism - as though that were some kind of terrible perversion of real, decent religion. Voltaire got it right long ago: 'Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.' So did Bertrand Russell: 'Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do.