30+ Jerry A. Coyne Quotes (Evolutionary Biology)

Jerry A. Coyne is an evolutionary biologist and professor emeritus at the University of Chicago. He is known for his research on speciation and his book Why Evolution is True, which explains the evidence for evolutionary theory. He is also a critic of creationism and intelligent design.

Top 10 Jerry A. Coyne Quotes

1. If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labeling our ignorance “God”.
2. If the history of science teaches us anything, it is that what conquers our ignorance is research, not giving up and attributing our ignorance to the miraculous work of a creator.
3. Can a geology teacher blithely tell his students that the earth is flat, or a European history professor that the Holocaust didn't happen? That's not academic freedom, but dereliction of duty.
4. Evolution tells us where we came from, not where we can go.
5. We now have many of the answers that once eluded Darwin, thanks to two developments that he could not have imagined: continental drift and molecular taxonomy.
6. All scientific progress requires a climate of strong skepticism.
7. We humans have many vestigial features proving that we evolved. The most famous is the appendix.
8. Come on, readers, give me one example of a question that religion has answered to everyone's satisfaction - one example of a "truth" found in religion's quest for truth.
9. If you can't think of an observation that could disprove a theory, that theory simply isn't scientific.
10. Damn, but science is just a constant feed of cool new facts and theories. Theology doesn't come close.

Jerry A. Coyne Short Quotes

• Theology is the post hoc rationalization of what you want to believe.
• In religion, faith is a virtue. In science, faith is a vice.
• You can find religions without creationism, but you never find creationism without religion.
• Religion is based on dogma and belief, whereas science is based on doubt and questioning.
• Faith is a padlock of the mind, and few keys can open it.

Jerry A. Coyne Famous Quotes And Sayings

The fact that both Jews and Christians ignore some of God's or Jesus's commands, but scrupulously obey others, is absolute proof that people pick and choose their morality not on the basis of its divine source, but because it comports with some innate morality that they derived from other sources. — Jerry A. Coyne

The biogeographic evidence for evolution is now so powerful that I have never seen a creationist book, article, or lecture that has tried to refute it. Creationists simply pretend that the evidence doesn't exist. — Jerry A. Coyne

Because of the hegemony of fundamentalist religion in the United States, this country has been among the most resistant to the fact of human evolution. — Jerry A. Coyne

We don't have faith in reason; we use reason because, unlike revelation, it produces results and understanding. Even discussing why we should use reason employs reason! — Jerry A. Coyne

Why, exactly, are scientists supposed to accord "respect" to a bunch of ancient fables that are not only ludicrous on their face, but motivate so much opposition to science? — Jerry A. Coyne

A well-understood and testable hypothesis like sexual selection surely trumps an untestable appeal to the inscrutable caprices of a creator. — Jerry A. Coyne

There is no horror, no amount of evil in the world, that a true believer can't rationalize as consistent with a loving God. It's the ultimate way of fooling yourself. — Jerry A. Coyne

It is clear, then, that whatever genetic heritage we have, it is not a straitjacket that traps us forever in the "beastly" ways of our forebears. Evolution tells us where we came from, not where we can go. — Jerry A. Coyne

It takes a profound hypocrisy to try to reconcile for others things that you can't reconcile for yourself. — Jerry A. Coyne

These mysteries about how we evolved should not distract us from the indisputable fact that we did evolve. — Jerry A. Coyne

We are the one creature to whom natural selection has bequeathed a brain complex enough to comprehend the laws that govern the universe. And we should be proud that we are the only species that has figured how we came to be. — Jerry A. Coyne

Now, science cannot completely exclude the possibility of supernatural explanation. It is possible though very unlikely that our whole world is controlled by elves. But supernatural explanations like these are simply never needed; we manage to understand the natural world just fine using reason and materialism. — Jerry A. Coyne

The battle for evolution seems never-ending. And the battle is part of a wider war, a war between rationality and superstition. — Jerry A. Coyne

In the end theologians are jealous of science, for they are aware that it has greater authority than do their own ways of finding "truth": dogma, authority, and revelation. Science does find truth, faith does not. — Jerry A. Coyne

Some believers are fundamentalists about everything, but every believer is a fundamentalist about something. — Jerry A. Coyne

Life Lessons by Jerry A. Coyne

1. Professor Jerry A. Coyne's work emphasizes the importance of understanding evolutionary processes in order to gain insight into the diversity of life on Earth.
2. His research highlights the need to consider the effects of natural selection, genetic drift, and other evolutionary forces on the development of species.
3. He also emphasizes the importance of considering the environment and its influences on the evolution of species.