Richard Dawkins
Richard DawkinsAtheism is a silly term as senseless as a-fairyist or a-unicornist. We of course are all of these things, but we shouln't have to say so.
Atheism is the idea that since lack of proof doesn't force us to be agnostic about garden fairies whose non-existence we cannot prove, we should similarly not feel forced to be agnostic about God whose non-existence cannot be proved.
Biological determinism is the idea that we are gene machines, robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. We can overcome determinism, or at least act like we are overcoming,determinism in order to exercise what by all appearances looks like free will.
Biology is the study of complicated things which give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.
Evolution is a battle among genes, each seeking to make more copies of itself. Bodies are merely the places where genes aggregate for a time.
Evolution is not constrained to life on earth and doesn't require DNA to operate. Any sort of replicators with certain characteristics such as ideas, songs, fashions, will be able to undergo darwinian evolution.
Evolution is nothing other than a systematic increase or decrease in the frequency with which we see a particular gene in a gene pool.
God is an entity who, in the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction: Jealous and proud of it... a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak... a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser... a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
The Human being is not a kind of conscious being, but a gene machine, a robot vehicle blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.
Life is, despite being a blindly programmed robot gene machine, not deterministic, rather statistical. We can overcome determinism, or at least act like we are overcoming determinism in order to exercise what by all appearances looks like free will.
