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If you really want to boil it down to the absolute basics, I believe the reason we are alive is entropy. It's the only "force" that ensures that things will change, and change is absolutely necessary for the existence of life.

We have more in common with one another than anything else in the entire Cosmos. The genetic differences between every living human is less than the difference between Chihuahuas and Huskies. We all have the same biological heritage and we all float on the same tiny ball in an unimaginably vast ocean of space. If you consider all of the various forms of matter and the possibilities of existence, you can begin to see just how much we truly have in common. One person may like lasagna with meat, one person may like it without meat, but every person that ever existed would eat a bowl of it if they were hungry.

A person can be smart, logical, and also believe in God but only if they have an incomplete understanding of logic. I don't mean that as an insult. Logically speaking, very little about what religion has to offer makes sense. Invisible sky creatures? Telepathic connections to the undead? The Earth is only a few thousand years old? God speaks only to a handful of chosen people? Religion is the only path to morality? Be honest with yourself: none of those questions have logical explanations from a religious perspective.

Before society developed and codified it, religion existed (in a metaphorical sense) for millions of years. The mammals that learned to live in strict hierarchies were the ones most likely to survive. Even in the primitive world, multiple minds worked better than one. And from an evolutionary perspective, the only thing that really matters is survival.

Having personally gone through theism and agnosticism, I fully understand why people would want to call themselves agnostic atheists.

"Cosmos" by Carl Sagan was more influential to me than any book I've ever read. It reawakened the spirituality inside me, opened my eyes to the wonders of science, gave me a sense of self, helped me appreciate all life on Earth, and laid the foundation for the human being I have become.

Q: What does your worldview say about cooperation & conflict, if anything? A: I am Gaian. I believe that everyone is intimately related, which is why we are so contentious…

Not only should it be legal, it should be highly publicized and ridiculed. Someone once asked Jerry Springer why he, a Jew, would give KKK members a platform to spread their hate to a national audience. His response was sublime. He said that it is our obligation as a free society to allow anyone to speak their hate, but it is our duty to make sure everyone recognizes it for what it is. If we don't refute something because we're too busy burying it, then the "truth" becomes whatever they want it to be.

A: Organisms are giant machines, and they require a lot of energy. All day, every day, most organisms spend their time concerned with the consumption and excretion of biological material.…

Q: How does evolution explain why men tend to outperform women in mathematics and spatial reasoning? A: Our species has a long biological heritage of men going out to do…

I'm not an atheist because I have yet to see evidence that God exists; I'm an atheist because I understand the biological explanation for it.