Richard Dawkins interviews Dan Dennett for "The Genius of Charles Darwin",
the Channel 4 UK TV program which won British Broadcasting Awards' "
Best Documentary Series" of 2008.
"I think gratitude is one of the wonderful human emotions and one of the great springs of a belief in god. You get up and you look around and you say "I'm so lucky to be alive- this is so wonderful- I wish there was somebody I could thank. And there's nobody to thank. And so you have to thank your lucky stars and then you can think, "Well', at least I can make more reason for other people to be thankful." - Daniel Dennett
"Given that there's nobody to thank, being able to reflect upon the process that gave rise to you is the nearest we can come to thanking. And it's actually rather better than thanking, because it's a thoughtful thing to do. It's an understanding- a comprehending thing to do- so you're not just kind of thanking your "sky daddy"- you're marveling in the fact that you are here and the process that gave rise to you is the same process that gave rise to all these trees and the earth. It's no accident that we are surrounded by an entire eco-system. We couldn't exist without it. Thanking something can be sublimated into understanding how it all happened, and I think you get the same sort of comfort (as well as awe and exaltation) from that." - Richard Dawkins
"Hallelujah for the universe and for the fact that we can understand it and are working towards understanding it" - Richard Dawkins
"The universe is so wonderful on its own, it doesn't need a boss. It doesn't need a creator. The fact that it can, in effect create itself is wonderful enough." - Daniel Dennett
