Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is valuable for survival: the analogue of steering by the moon for a moth. But the flip side of trusting obedience is slavish gullibility. The inevitable by-product is vulnerability to infection by mind viruses.


The God Delusion (2006)

Richard Dawkins Quotes

Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is...

Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is...

Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is...

Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is...