This does not mean that scientists cant be religious. We can encompass — PZ Myers

"...what I want to happen to religion in the future is this: I want it to be like bowling. Its a hobby, something some people will enjoy, that has some virtues to it, that will have its own institutions and its traditions and its own television programming, and that families will enjoy together. Its not something I want to ban or that should affect hiring and firing decisions, or that interferes with public policy. It will be perfectly harmless as long as we dont elect our politicians on the basis of their bowling score, or go to war with people who play nine-pin instead of ten-pin, or use folklore about backspin to make decrees about how biology works."

"I have been told that my position wont win the creationist court cases. Do you think I care? I didnt become a scientist because I want to impress lawyers. The word for people who are neutral about truth is "liars"."

"If a scientist saw a cataclysm coming, say a meteor on collision course for earth in 2050, we wouldn’t be saying, “Hallelujah, physics is true, bring it on! Our faith in mathematics is strengthened!” We’d be trying to stop it. Which makes the Christian reaction puzzling. If I actually believed Jesus was coming to end the world, I’d be preparing by stocking up on timber and nails. They were pretty effective last time."

"Religion is a barbarous obsidian knife poised over our chests — put it in a cabinet and admire it as a work of art, but dont ever wield the damned thing ever again."

"Were confronted all the time with evolving viruses and bacteria. The Red Queen really rules the biological world, and we have to keep running just to keep up pace with the changing microorganisms. Yet policymakers and the public deny vaccination, and evolution itself, and question the value of biomedical research. Maybe they dont believe in evolution, but the microorganisms trying to kill us are taking full advantage of it."

"Faith is a vice pretending to be a virtue, its lies and errors and frothy nonsense deluding us and distracting us from action. Theres no salvation in wishful thinking, only inertia. Faith is the enemy of reason. The one thing every single one of us here must be united in despising is faith. Its the barren refuge of the vacuous, the fearful, the frauds, and the obstacles to accomplishment."