I don't think the 9/11 attacks taught us anything we didn't already know about religion. It has long been obvious - even to the deeply religious - that religious fanaticism is an extremely dangerous deranger of otherwise sane and goodhearted people. — 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
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
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it. — Daniel Dennett Copy Share
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
There's no polite way to say to somebody (religious followers) 'Do you realize you've wasted your life? — Daniel Dennett Copy Share
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
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
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
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
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
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
Consciousness is cerebral celebrity--nothing more and nothing less. Those contents are conscious that persevere, that monopolize resources long enough to achieve certain typical and… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share
People ache to believe that we human beings are vastly different from all other species - and they are right! We are different. We… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share
Minds are in limited supply, and each mind has a limited capacity for memes, and hence there is considerable competition among memes for entry… — Daniel Dennett Copy Share
