“It is a tedious cliché (and, unlike many clichés, it isn't even true) that science concerns itself with how questions, but only theology is equipped to answer why questions. What on Earth is a why question? Not every English sentence beginning with the word 'why' is a legitimate question. Why are unicorns hollow? Some questions simply do not deserve an answer. What is the colour of abstraction? What is the smell of hope? The fact that a question can be phrased in a grammatically correct English sentence doesn't make it meaningful, or entitle it to our serious attention. Nor, even if the question is a real one, does the fact that science cannot answer it imply that religion can.”

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About Richard Dawkins

British evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator, atheist activist, and author

Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator, atheist activist, and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford. In 1995 he became the first Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, a post he held until 2008. Dawkins is known for writing and speaking about evolution, science, and atheism, and for explaining science to a broad audience. He has received several academic and literary honors, including the 2005 Shakespeare Prize and the 2006 Lewis Thomas Prize.

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Books by Richard Dawkins

The God Delusion

2006

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The Selfish Gene

1995

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The Blind Watchmaker

1990

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The Ancestor's Tale

2005

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The Greatest Show on Earth

2009

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