Daniel Dennett

I am a philosopher, not a scientist, and we philosophers are better at questions than answers.

— Daniel Dennett

The way evolution always discovers reasons is by retroactive endorsement.

— Daniel Dennett

Human consciousness is just about the last surviving mystery.

— Daniel Dennett

There’s simply no polite way to tell people they’ve dedicated their lives to an illusion.

— Daniel Dennett

...but I also can't prove that mushrooms could not be intergalactic spaceships spying on us.

— Daniel Dennett

“There's nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view I hold dear.”

— Daniel Dennett

Atheism, a term which will, I'm sure, eventually become as unnecessary as round-earthism.

— Daniel Dennett

Cost is always an object - the second law of thermodynamics sees to that

— Daniel Dennett

Minds are in limited supply, and each mind has a limited capacity for memes, and hence there is considerable competition among memes…

— Daniel Dennett

How good are the best musical imaginations? Can a trained musician, swiftly reading a score, tell just how that voicing of dissonant…

— Daniel Dennett

In the beginning, there were no reasons; there were only causes. Nothing had a purpose, nothing has so much as a function;…

— Daniel Dennett

Now that mobile phones and the internet have altered the epistemic selective landscape in a revolutionary way, every religious organisation must scramble…

— Daniel Dennett

Religion is defined as social systems whose participants avow a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought.

— Daniel Dennett

I think many people are terribly afraid of being demoted by the Darwinian scheme from the role of authors and creators in…

— Daniel Dennett

Human freedom is not an illusion; it is an objective phenomenon, distinct from all other biological conditions and found in only one…

— Daniel Dennett

There is no reality of consciousness independent of the effects of various vehicles of content on subsequent action (and hence, of course,…

— Daniel Dennett

Up till now, we can suppose, nervous systems solved the Now what do I do? problem by a relatively simple balancing act…

— Daniel Dennett

Has it ever occurred to you how lucky you are to be alive? More than 99 percent of all the creatures that…

— Daniel Dennett

In order to make a perfect and beautiful machine, it is not requisite to know how to make it. All the works…

— Daniel Dennett

Consciousness is cerebral celebrity--nothing more and nothing less. Those contents are conscious that persevere, that monopolize resources long enough to achieve certain…

— Daniel Dennett

Are zombies possible? They're not just possible, they're actual. We're all zombies. Nobody is conscious — not in the systematically mysterious way…

— Daniel Dennett

The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make…

— Daniel Dennett

The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them - especially not from yourself. Instead of turning away in…

— Daniel Dennett

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

Cults and prophets proclaiming the imminent end of the world have been with us for several millennia, and it has been another…

— Daniel Dennett

I am confident that those who believe in belief are wrong. That is, we no more need to preserve the myth of…

— Daniel Dennett

“Postmodernism, the school of "thought" that proclaimed "There are no truths, only interpretations" has largely played itself out in absurdity, but it…

— Daniel Dennett

Most people in the West who say they believe in God actually believe in belief in God.

— Daniel Dennett

Life itself is just a thin coat of paint on the planet, and we hold the paintbrush.

— Daniel Dennett

The only meaning of life worth caring about is one that can withstand our best efforts to examine it.

— Daniel Dennett

I think religion for many people is some sort of moral viagra.

— Daniel Dennett

The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them-especially not from yourself.

— Daniel Dennett

Reasons for declaring belief is not are not the same as reasons for believing in god.

— Daniel Dennett

Thanks to technology, what almost anybody can do has been multiplied a thousandfold, and our moral understanding about what we ought to…

— Daniel Dennett

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

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

I am inclined to think that nothing could matter more than what people love. At any rate, I can think of no…

— Daniel Dennett

The best thing about saying thank goodness in place of thank God this that here really are lots of ways of repaying…

— Daniel Dennett

A child raised on a desert island, alone, without social interaction, without language, and thus lacking empathy, is still a sentient being.

— Daniel Dennett

I don't myself need that role for God. My view is that creation itself, the universe itself, is the most wonderful thing…

— Daniel Dennett