Evolution is as much a fact as the heat of the sun.
Interpretation
Evolution is a proven scientific theory, just like the existence of the sun's heat.
In this quote, Richard Dawkins emphasizes that the theory of evolution is a well-established scientific fact, comparable to something as universally accepted as the heat emitted by the sun. He implies that just as one cannot deny the tangible effects of the sun's warmth, one cannot dismiss the evidence supporting evolution as a fundamental biological process.
In practice
In a scientific conference discussing biological principles.
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.
The problem [with genetic research] is, we're just starting down this path, feeling our way in the dark. We have a small lantern in the form of a gene, but the lantern doesn't penetrate more than a couple of hundred feet. We don't know whether we're going to encounter chasms, rock walls or mountain ranges along the way. We don't even know how long the path is.
Using e-mail, I can communicate with scientists all over the world.
It took them only an instant to cut of that head, but it is unlikely that a hundred years will suffice to reproduce a singular one.
For anyone inclined to caricature environmental history as 'environmental determinism,' the contrasting histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti provide a useful antidote. Yes, environmental problems do constrain human societies, but the societies' responses also make a difference.
Data is like garbage. You'd better know what you are going to do with it before you collect it.
Science has always been my preoccupation and when you think a breakthrough is possible, it is terribly exciting.
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