The famous evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins wrote a wonderful letter to his 10 year-old daughter Juliet on good and bad reasons for believing. “Is this the kind of thing that people probably know because of evidence? Or is it the kind of thing that people only believe because of tradition, authority, or revelation?”
I found myself involuntarily cheering: “Yes, YES!” while reading it this morning. My thanks to Jason Kottke for the heads-up.