Whereas religions may serve a benign purpose by letting many people feel comfortable with the level of morality they themselves can attain,… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
In the beginning, there were no reasons; there were only causes. Nothing had a purpose, nothing has so much as a function;… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
I don't think the 9/11 attacks taught us anything we didn't already know about religion. It has long been obvious - even… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
...but I also can't prove that mushrooms could not be intergalactic spaceships spying on us. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
I even agree that the concept of god helps some people lead better lives. That does happen. Don't ever forget it. I… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
... there could be talking bunny rabbits, spiders who write English messages in their webs, and for that matter, melancholy choo-choo trains.… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Now that mobile phones and the internet have altered the epistemic selective landscape in a revolutionary way, every religious organisation must scramble… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Keep Darwinian thinking out of cosmology, out of psychology, out of human culture, out of ethics, politics, and religion! — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
True, you don't have to be religious to be crazy, but it helps. Indeed, if you are religious, you don't have to… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
I think that there are no forces on this planet more dangerous to us all than the fanaticisms of fundamentalism, of all… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
It's a no win situation. It's a mug's game. The religions have contrived to make it impossible to disagree with them critically… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Religion is defined as social systems whose participants avow a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Reasons for declaring belief is not are not the same as reasons for believing in god. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
We have had plenty of atheist presidents; they just wouldn't admit it. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Religions have depended on the relative isolation and ignorance of their flocks, forever and this is all breaking down. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
I don't think there is any religious revival. I think what we are hearing, the furor, is merely the hysterical response of… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
The kindly God who lovingly fashioned each and every one of us and sprinkled the sky with shining stars for our delight… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
The best thing about saying thank goodness in place of thank God this that here really are lots of ways of repaying… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
The idea that God is a worthy recipient of our gratitude for the blessings of life but should not be held accountable… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
You don't get to advertise all the good that your religion does without first scrupulously subtracting all the harm it does and… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
There are no forces on this planet more dangerous to all of us than the fanaticisms of fundamentalism. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Virtually every major technological advance in the history of the human species- back to the invention of stone tools and the domestication of fire… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Churches have given us great treasures such as music and architecture. Whether that pays for the harm they have done is another matter. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Whereas religions may serve a benign purpose by letting many people feel comfortable with the level of morality they themselves can attain, no religion… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
There's no polite way to say to somebody (religious followers) 'Do you realize you've wasted your life? — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Wherever there is a design that is highly successful in a broad range of similar environments, it is apt to emerge again and again,… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
The haven all memes depend on reaching is the human mind, but a human mind is itself an artifact created when memes restructure a… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Cost is always an object - the second law of thermodynamics sees to that — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
In the beginning, there were no reasons; there were only causes. Nothing had a purpose, nothing has so much as a function; there was… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
I look around the world and see so many wonderful things that I love and enjoy and benefit from, whether it's art or music… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
In all mammalian species that have so far been carefully studied, the rate at which their members engage in the killing of conspecifics is… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
Cults and prophets proclaiming the imminent end of the world have been with us for several millennia, and it has been another sour sort… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share Image
