Humans are just a very, very small part of the panoply of life, and it is arguable that in a certain sense, humans have emancipated themselves from Darwinian selection.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea that humans are a minor aspect of the greater spectrum of life and that they have transcended natural selection.
Richard Dawkins expresses the notion that while humans are part of the vast array of life forms on Earth, they have developed in ways that set them apart from the evolutionary processes that govern other species. This perspective encourages a reflection on humanity's role in the world and the unique capabilities that allow for self-determination and adaptation beyond basic survival instincts.
In practice
During a lecture on evolution and humanity's place in the world.
No educated person believes the Adam and Eve myth nowadays, but it's surprising how many parents think that it's somehow fun to pass on this falsehood to their children...I would want to argue that the truth of evolution is more interesting and more poetic
If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity.
The population of the U.S. is nearly 300 million, including many of the best educated, most talented, most resourceful, humane people on earth. By almost any measure of civilised attainment, from Nobel prize-counts on down, the U.S. leads the world by miles.
When you make machines that are capable of obeying instructions slavishly, and among those instructions are 'duplicate me' instructions, then of course the system is wide open to exploitation by parasites.
Even if not a single fossil has ever been found, the evidence from surviving animals would still overwhelmingly force the conclusion that Darwin was right.
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this really was the historic homeland of the Jews.
When everyone is determined to present someone as a monster, there are two possibilities: either heβs a saint or they themselves are not telling the whole story.
A dog has the soul of a philosopher.
It is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty.
Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy.
Judge the Catholic Church not by those who barely live by its spirit, but by the example of those who live closest to it.
Wounded vanity knows when it is mortally hurt; and limps off the field, piteous, all disguises thrown away. But pride carries its banner to the last; and fast as it is driven from one field unfurls it in another, never admitting that there is a shade less honor in the second field than in the first, or in the third than in the second.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.