If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument. It is exactly of the same nature as the Indian's view, that the world rested upon an elephant and the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, 'How about the tortoise?' the Indian said, 'Suppose we change the subject.' The argument is really no better than that.
~ Bertrand Russell
Ronald Plasterk, moleculair bioloog, voormalig hoogleraar in de ontwikkelingsgenetica aan de Universiteit van Utrecht, minister van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap.