Relatives share a substantial proportion of their genes. Each selfish gene therefore has its loyalties divided between different bodies. - Richard Dawkins

... the true utility function of life, that which is being maximised in the natural world, is DNA survival. But DNA is not floating free; it is locked up in living bodies and it has made the most of the levers of power at its disposal.

My objection to supernatural beliefs is precisely that they miserably fail to do justice to the sublime grandeur of the real world. They represent a narrowing-down from reality, an impoverishment of what the real world has to offer.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.