There is no reason for believing that any sort of gods exist, and quite good reasons for believing that they do not exist and never have. It has all been a gigantic waste of time and a waste of life. It would be a joke of cosmic proportions if it weren't so tragic.
Interpretation
This quote expresses skepticism about the existence of gods and highlights the perceived futility of religious belief.
Richard Dawkins, in this quote, argues against the existence of gods, suggesting that there is no evidence supporting such beliefs and that they may have led humanity to waste time and life. He conveys a sense of tragedy mixed with irony, asserting that the idea of belief in gods could be considered a cosmic joke, reflecting the absurdity he sees in the persistence of religious faith despite a lack of rational justification.
In practice
During a debate on religious beliefs in a philosophy class.
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.
Like the practice of breath control, meditation on the forms of God, repetition of mantras, food restrictions, etc., are but aids for rendering the mind quiescent.
The spirit of democracy... requires change of the heart... requires the inculcation of the spirit of brotherhood.
In the long run, the people are our only appeal. The only ones who can free us are ourselves.
As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors our whole life.
Challenging the integrity of the non-proliferation regime is a matter which can affect international peace and security.
Of course it is a very simple matter to identify genes which might modify intelligence or memory and start thinking about whether you want to enhance a human, and the next generation is going to have to deal with that issue. Should we be trying to enhance humans rather than trying to educate them and so on?
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.