The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance but to overcome it
Metaphysical speculation is independent of the physical validity of the Big Bang itself and is irrelevant to our understanding of it.
The universe has a much greater imagination than we do, which is why the real story of the universe is far more interesting than any of the fairy tales we have invented to describe it.
More often than you might think, teaching science is inseparable from teaching doubt.
We need to live our experience as it is and with our eyes open. The universe is the way it is, whether we like it or not.
If the universe doesn’t care about us and if we’re an accident in a remote corner of the universe, in some sense it makes us more precious. The meaning in our lives is provided by us; we provide our own meaning.
Empty space is a boiling, bubbling brew of virtual particles that pop in and out of existence in a time scale so short that you can’t even measure them.
Aside from communications satellites, space is devoid of industry.
I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false.
I don’t know if science and reason will ultimately help guide humanity to a better and more peaceful future, but I am certain that this belief is part of what keeps the ‘Star Trek’ fandom going.
When a person’s religious beliefs cause him to deny the evidence of science, or for whom public policy morphs into a battle with the devil, shouldn’t that be a subject for discussion and debate?
Organized religion, wielding power over the community, is antithetical to the process of what modern democracy should define as liberty. The sooner we are without it, the better.
Keeping religion immune from criticism is both unwarranted and dangerous.
It never ceases to amaze me that every second of every day, more than 6,000 billion neutrinos coming from nuclear reactions inside the sun whiz through my body, almost all of which will travel right through the earth without interruption.
The illusion of purpose and design is perhaps the most pervasive illusion about nature that science has to confront on a daily basis.
By no definition of any modern scientist is intelligent design science, and it’s a waste of our students’ time to subject them to it.