bad things, like good things don't happen any more often than they ought to by chance. the universe has no mind, no feelings, and no personality, so it doesn't do things in order to either hurt or please you. bad things happen because things happen.
Interpretation
Bad and good events are random occurrences shaped by chance, rather than intentional acts of the universe.
In this quote, Richard Dawkins emphasizes that the events in our lives, whether deemed good or bad, occur by chance rather than a deliberate design or intention from the universe. The randomness of existence means that we should not attribute personal significance to these occurrences, as they arise from the natural order of things rather than any moral judgment or cosmic planning.
In practice
In a discussion about fate and randomness in life experiences.
No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it's surprising how many parents think that it's somehow fun to pass on this falsehood to their children...I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity.
The population of the U.S. is nearly 300 million, including many of the best educated, most talented, most resourceful, humane people on earth. By almost any measure of civilised attainment, from Nobel prize-counts on down, the U.S. leads the world by miles.
When you make machines that are capable of obeying instructions slavishly, and among those instructions are 'duplicate me' instructions, then of course the system is wide open to exploitation by parasites.
Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this really was the historic homeland of the Jews.
New Orleans - the real New Orleans - is the soul of the country.
No man dies for what he knows to be true. Men die for what they want to be true, for what some terror in their hearts tells them is not true.
If our 'message' is anything, it's a positive approach to life. That life is basically good. People are basically good.
Ultimately, the transgender question is about more than just sex. It's about what it means to be human.
Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats. This is a hard thing to think about, but it's the truth. It won't go away because we cover our eyes. THAT is cyberpunk.
The Way of Heaven does not complete, and yet it skillfully achieves victory. It does not speak, and yet it skillfully responds to things. It comes to you without your invitation.
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