Any belief in miracles is flat contradictory not just to the facts of science but to the spirit of science.

I read in the paper today the list of the most popular boys' names in Britain. The first was Jack, the second was Mohammed. That makes me feel a little bit worried.

Religion has been a powerful weapon in the hands of governments, in the hands of priests, in the hands of kings who have used it as a weapon to keep down the populace. It is a wonderful way of disciplining people and making them do what you want, to tell them that if they don't do what you want they will, for example, go to Hell.

Compassionate doctors sometimes lie to patients about the severity of their condition, and it is not always wrong to do so.

Again, it is belief without evidence. In the case of Stalinism, people actually distorted science, because it was for the good of the Communist Party.

I don't understand why so many people who are sophisticated in science go on believing in God. I wish I did.

I've been reading an Alabama newspaper that one man shot another man because he beat him in a Bible-quoting competition.