Origine: Reviewing Blueprints: Solving the Mystery of Evolution (1989) by Maitland A. Edey and Donald C. Johanson
Origine: Last sentence expanded upon in "Ignorance is No Crime" (2001) (see below)
Contesto: So to the book's provocation, the statement that nearly half the people in the United States don't believe in evolution. Not just any people but powerful people, people who should know better, people with too much influence over educational policy. We are not talking about Darwin's particular theory of natural selection. It is still (just) possible for a biologist to doubt its importance, and a few claim to. No, we are here talking about the fact of evolution itself, a fact that is proved utterly beyond reasonable doubt. To claim equal time for creation science in biology classes is about as sensible as to claim equal time for the flat-earth theory in astronomy classes. Or, as someone has pointed out, you might as well claim equal time in sex education classes for the stork theory. It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that).
If that gives you offence, I'm sorry. You are probably not stupid, insane or wicked; and ignorance is no crime in a country with strong local traditions of interference in the freedom of biology educators to teach the central theorem of their subject.
Richard Dawkins: Frasi in inglese (pagina 3)
Richard Dawkins è etologo, biologo e divulgatore scientifico britannico. Frasi in inglese.Origine: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
"Gaps in the Mind"
A Devil's Chaplain (2003)
Origine: A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
“By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.”
The Enemies of Reason, "The Irrational Health Service" [1.02], 20 August 2007, timecode 00:13:05"ff"
The Enemies of Reason (August 2007)
Variante: We should be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brain falls out.
Origine: Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
“Science replaces private prejudice with publicly verifiable evidence.”
The Enemies of Reason, "The Irrational Health Service"
The Enemies of Reason (August 2007)
Richard Dawkins on militant atheism http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html, (February 2002)
Contesto: We've reached a truly remarkable situation: a grotesque mismatch between the American intelligencia and the American electorate. A philosophical opinion about the nature of the universe which is held by the vast majority of top American scientists, and probably the majority of the intelligencia generally, is so abhorrent to the American electorate that no candidate for popular election dare affirm it in public. If I'm right, this means that high office in the greatest country in the world is barred to the very people best qualified to hold it: the intelligencia, unless they are prepared to lie about their beliefs. To put it bluntly American political opportunities are heavily loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest.
Origine: A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
Origine: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
“Unfortunately, however much we may deplore something, it does not stop being true.”
Origine: The Selfish Gene
“DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is. And we dance to its music.”
Origine: River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life
Origine: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
Origine: The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True