A THREAD on few thought provoking ideas by Richard Dawkins:
1/
The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable.
It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver..
1/
The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable.
It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver..
.. It is truly one of the things that make life worth living and it does so, if anything, more effectively if it convinces us that the time we have for living is quite finite.
2/
There's real poetry in the real world.
Science is the poetry of reality.
There's real poetry in the real world.
Science is the poetry of reality.
3/
After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life.
Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun,...
After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life.
Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun,...
...to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it?
This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.
This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.
4/
Aristotle was an encyclopedic polymath, an all time intellect.
Yet not only can you know more than him about the world. You also can have a deeper understanding of how everything works.
Such is the privilege of living after Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Planck, Watson, Crick.
Aristotle was an encyclopedic polymath, an all time intellect.
Yet not only can you know more than him about the world. You also can have a deeper understanding of how everything works.
Such is the privilege of living after Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Planck, Watson, Crick.
5/
We are survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.
This is a truth which still fills me with astonishment.
We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.
We are survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.
This is a truth which still fills me with astonishment.
We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.
6/
Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
7/
I don't give a damn for anybody's opinion, I only care about the facts.
So I'm not an enthusiast for diversity of opinion where factual matters are concerned.
I don't give a damn for anybody's opinion, I only care about the facts.
So I'm not an enthusiast for diversity of opinion where factual matters are concerned.
8/
I am thrilled to be alive at time when humanity is pushing against the limits of understanding.
Even better, we may eventually discover that there are no limits.
I am thrilled to be alive at time when humanity is pushing against the limits of understanding.
Even better, we may eventually discover that there are no limits.
9/
The world and the universe is an extremely beautiful place, and the more we understand about it the more beautiful does it appear.
The world and the universe is an extremely beautiful place, and the more we understand about it the more beautiful does it appear.
10/
Do not indoctrinate your children.
Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.
Do not indoctrinate your children.
Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.
11/
The assignment of purpose to everything is called teleology.
Children are native teleologists, and many never grow out of it.
The assignment of purpose to everything is called teleology.
Children are native teleologists, and many never grow out of it.
12/
There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.
There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.
13/
Perhaps consciousness arises when the brain's simulation of the world becomes so complex that it must include a model of itself.
Perhaps consciousness arises when the brain's simulation of the world becomes so complex that it must include a model of itself.
14/
Evolution could so easily be disproved if just a single fossil turned up in the wrong date order.
Evolution has passed this test with flying colours.
Evolution could so easily be disproved if just a single fossil turned up in the wrong date order.
Evolution has passed this test with flying colours.
15/
The only watchmaker is the blind forces of physics.
The only watchmaker is the blind forces of physics.
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