Peter Atkins Quotes & Sayings

I regard teaching religion as purveying lies. — Peter Atkins

Theologians could not even agree about the nature of their gods. These personages ranged from "blue touch-paper gods" who started everything and never interfered again, to "infinitely meddlesome gods who, as well as starting it off, police every elementary particle. — Peter Atkins

Science is almost totally incompatible with religion. — Peter Atkins

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

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

[Religion is] a fantasy [and is] completely empty of any explanatory content. It is also evil. — Peter Atkins

Any argument that asserts that 'God did it' is a sign of a lazy mind. — Peter Atkins

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

[Religious belief is] outmoded and ridiculous. [Belief in gods was a] worn out but once useful crutch in mankind's journey towards truth. We consider the time has come for that crutch to be abandoned.
It is a vacuous answer ... To say that 'God made the world' is simply a more or less sophisticated way of saying that we don't understand how the universe originated. A god, in so far as it is anything, is an admission of ignorance.
Religion utterly failed to provide an explanation of the biosphere other than that 'God made it all'. Then Darwin thundered over the horizon and in a few decades of observation and thought ... arrived at an answer.
I regard teaching religion as purveying lies. I came here today to de-corrupt you all. — Peter Atkins

Focusing on what matters means saying no to things that don't matter. Otherwise, your life becomes cluttered with distractions. — Peter Atkins

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

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

The emergence of consciousness, like the unfolding of a leaf, relies upon restraint. — Peter Atkins

It is not possible to be intellectually honest and believe in gods. And it is not possible to believe in gods and be a true scientist. — Peter Atkins

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

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

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. - Plato — Peter Atkins