'We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.'
Life and Thought
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) is an evolutionary biologist, author, and former professor at the University of Oxford, world-renowned for his gene-centered explanation of evolution and outspoken criticism of religion. By introducing the concept of the 'meme' in *The Selfish Gene* and writing the controversial *The God Delusion*, he has played a prominent role in promoting science and the New Atheism movement.
