Peter Atkins Quotes

• Chemistry begins in the stars. The stars are the source of the chemical elements, which are the building blocks of matter and the core of our subject.

  Peter Atkins

  Stars, Block, Elements

  25 Copy quote

• Any argument that asserts that 'God did it' is a sign of a lazy mind.

  Peter Atkins

  Mind, Lazy, Argument

  11 Copy quote

• Science reveals where religion conceals. Where religion purports to explain, it actually resorts to tautology. To assert that "God did it" is no more than an admission of ignorance dressed deceitfully as an explanation.

  Peter Atkins

  Ignorance, Atheism, Tautology

  17 Copy quote

• We are children of chaos, and the deep structure of change is decay. At root, there is only corruption, and the unstemmable tide of chaos. Gone is purpose; all that is left is direction. This is the bleakness we have to accept as we peer deeply and dispassionately into the heart of the Universe.

  Peter Atkins

  Children, Heart, Roots

  17 Copy quote

• Truth is not arrived at by majority vote.

  Peter Atkins

  Majority Vote, Majority, Vote

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• Science is almost totally incompatible with religion.

  Peter Atkins

  8 Copy quote

• I regard teaching religion as purveying lies.

  Peter Atkins

  Lying, Teaching, Teaching Religion

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• Someone with a fresh mind, one not conditioned by upbringing and environment, would doubtless look at science and the powerful reductionism that it inspires as overwhelmingly the better mode of understanding the world, and would doubtless scorn religion as sentimental wishful thinking. Would not that same uncluttered mind also see the attempts to reconcile science and religion by disparaging the reduction of the complex to the simple as attempts guided by muddle-headed sentiment and intellectually dishonest emotion?

  Peter Atkins

  Powerful, Simple, Thinking

  12 Copy quote

• A great deal of the universe does not need any explanation. Elephants, for instance. Once molecules have learnt to compete and to create other molecules in their own image, elephants, and things resembling elephants, will in due course be found roaming around the countryside ... Some of the things resembling elephants will be men.

  Peter Atkins

  Men, Roaming Around, Elephants

  15 Copy quote

• Well it's fairly straightforward: there isn't one [a god]. And there's no evidence for one, no reason to believe that there is one, and so I don't believe that there is one. And I think that it is rather foolish that people do think that there is one.

  Peter Atkins

  Believe, Thinking, People

  11 Copy quote

• The emergence of consciousness, like the unfolding of a leaf, relies upon restraint.

  Peter Atkins

  Rely Upon, Consciousness, Unfolding

  9 Copy quote

• My aim is to argue that the universe can come into existence without intervention, and that there is no need to invoke the idea of a Supreme Being in one of its numerous manifestations.

  Peter Atkins

  Ideas, Needs, Arguing

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• The challenge of elucidating living processes -- including consciousness and all its baggage which we bundle together as 'the human spirit' -- is only one example of a challenge where hard work is paying off and science does not need to accept the false explanations peddled by religions.

  Peter Atkins

  Hard Work, Challenges, Together

  7 Copy quote

• Someone with a fresh mind, one not conditioned by upbringing and environment, would doubtless look at science and the powerful reductionism that it inspires as overwhelmingly the better mode of understanding the world, and would doubtless scorn religion as sentimental wishful thinking.

  Peter Atkins

  Powerful, Thinking, Understanding

  10 Copy quote

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