I am very hostile to religion because it is enormously dominant, especially in American life. And I don't buy the argument that, well, it's harmless. I think it is harmful, partly because I care passionately about what's true.

I do believe that nice religious people make the world safe for extremists by teaching us [...] that faith is a virtue, teaching us that there's something good about holding beliefs without any substantiating evidence. Once you buy into that, [...] then the door is opened to extremists who defend their extremism by saying, 'Oh well, it's my faith, you can't touch it, you can't criticise my faith, I don't even need to defend it because faith is faith.'

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

With respect to those meanings of 'human' that are relevant to the morality of abortion, any fetus is less human than an adult pig.

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.

I think the world's always a better place if people are filled with understanding.

If people think God is interesting, the onus is on them to show that there is anything there to talk about. Otherwise they should just shut up about it.