The belief in supernatural forces remains to this day a yoke on the neck of humanity, but at least Thales made it possible, for those of us who wish it, to be free of that yoke.

Thought, without the data on which to structure that thought, leads nowhere.

Fifteen years of skepticism has done more for me than 20 years of force-fed religion and 30 years of indifference in between.

Define self-awareness and tell me what it is about it that requires something more than a material explanation. I do not accept the burden of explaining all phenomena, real or imagined. If you think more than matter is required for this thing you call self-awareness, which you have not defined, then you have the burden of showing why.

A scenario is suggested by which the universe and its laws could have arisen naturally from nothing. Current cosmology suggests that no laws of physics were violated in bringing the universe into existence. The laws of physics themselves are shown to correspond to what one would expect if the universe appeared from nothing. There is something rather than nothing because something is more stable.

Selling eternal life is an unbeatable business, with no customers ever asking for their money back after the goods are not delivered.

Nature is capable of building complex structures by processes of self-organization; simplicity begets complexity.