Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence.

I was confirmed at my prep school at the age of 13.

When I say that human beings are just gene machines, one shouldn't put too much emphasis on the word 'just.' There is a very great deal of complication, and indeed beauty in being a gene machine.

Design can never be an ultimate explanation for anything. It can only be a proximate explanation. A plane or a car is explained by a designer but that's because the designer himself, the engineer, is explained by natural selection.

Personally, I rather look forward to a computer program winning the world chess championship. Humanity needs a lesson in humility.