As my colleague, the physical chemist Peter Atkins, puts it, we must be equally agnostic about the theory that there is a teapot in orbrit around the planet Pluto. We can't disprove it. But that doesn't mean the theory that there is a teapot is on level terms with the theory that there isn't.

The thing that defines a species is that all members have the same addressing system for their DNA.

The fear of Hell is a very powerful motivation.

Such a bandwidth! God, who may not have a brain made of neurons, or a CPU made of silicon, but if he has the powers attributed to him he must have something far more elaborately and non-randomly constructed than the largest brain or the largest computer we know.

I shall not make an argument ad hominem. My argument is ad bullshitem.

People like to trace their ancestry.

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