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It is clear, then, that whatever genetic heritage we have, it is not a straitjacket that traps us forever in the beastly ways of our forebears. Evolution tells us where we came from, not where we can go.

Jerry A. Coyne

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More quotes by Jerry A. Coyne

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We don't have faith in reason we use reason because, unlike revelation, it produces results and understanding. Even discussing why we should use reason employs reason!
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If the history of science teaches us anything, it is that what conquers our ignorance is research, not giving up and attributing our ignorance to the miraculous work of a creator.
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Theology is the post hoc rationalization of what you want to believe.
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These mysteries about how we evolved should not distract us from the indisputable fact that we did evolve.
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It takes a profound hypocrisy to try to reconcile for others things that you can't reconcile for yourself.
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The biogeographic evidence for evolution is now so powerful that I have never seen a creationist book, article, or lecture that has tried to refute it. Creationists simply pretend that the evidence doesn't exist.
Jerry A. Coyne
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Why, exactly, are scientists supposed to accord respect to a bunch of ancient fables that are not only ludicrous on their face, but motivate so much opposition to science?
Jerry A. Coyne
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We humans have many vestigial features proving that we evolved. The most famous is the appendix.
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In the end theologians are jealous of science, for they are aware that it has greater authority than do their own ways of finding truth: dogma, authority, and revelation. Science does find truth, faith does not.
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Damn, but science is just a constant feed of cool new facts and theories. Theology doesn't come close.
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A well-understood and testable hypothesis like sexual selection surely trumps an untestable appeal to the inscrutable caprices of a creator.
Jerry A. Coyne
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You can find religions without creationism, but you never find creationism without religion.
Jerry A. Coyne
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Now, science cannot completely exclude the possibility of supernatural explanation. It is possible though very unlikely that our whole world is controlled by elves. But supernatural explanations like these are simply never needed we manage to understand the natural world just fine using reason and materialism.
Jerry A. Coyne
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Come on, readers, give me one example of a question that religion has answered to everyone's satisfaction - one example of a truth found in religion's quest for truth.
Jerry A. Coyne
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In religion, faith is a virtue. In science, faith is a vice.
Jerry A. Coyne
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Religion is based on dogma and belief, whereas science is based on doubt and questioning.
Jerry A. Coyne
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There is no horror, no amount of evil in the world, that a true believer can't rationalize as consistent with a loving God. It's the ultimate way of fooling yourself.
Jerry A. Coyne
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Evolution tells us where we came from, not where we can go.
Jerry A. Coyne
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The battle for evolution seems never-ending. And the battle is part of a wider war, a war between rationality and superstition.
Jerry A. Coyne
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If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labeling our ignorance “God”.
Jerry A. Coyne