Richard Dawkins

The Selfish Gene

Type:: book
Date:: May 25, 2006
In:: Evolution

Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Baffling Quantum Phenomena

Type:: quote
Date:: October 02, 2000
In:: Philosophy of Science

Quantum theory is counterintuitive to the point where the physicist sometimes seems to be battling insanity. We are asked to believe that a single quantum ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Just Plain Truth

Type:: quote
Date:: October 02, 2000
In:: Truth?

It is simply true that the sun is hotter than the earth, true that the desk on which I am writing is made of wood. ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Science

Type:: quote
Date:: October 02, 2000
In:: Naturalism and Scientism, Philosophy of Science, Relativism

Is it just our Western scientific bias to be impressed by accurate prediction, to be impressed by the power to sling rockets around Jupiter to ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Science vs. Relativism

Type:: quote
Date:: October 02, 2000
In:: Naturalism and Scientism, Philosophy of Science

How should scientists respond to the allegation that our “faith” in logic and scientific truth is just that — faith — not “privileged” over alternative ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Truth

Type:: quote
Date:: October 02, 2000
In:: Doubt, Naturalism and Scientism, Relativism

A little learning is a dangerous thing. This has never struck me as a particularly profound or wise remark, but it comes into its own ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Science and Meaning

Type:: quote
Date:: January 01, 2000
In:: Naturalism and Scientism, Origins + Science

Accusations of barren desolation, of promoting an arid and joyless message, are frequently flung at science in general … But such very proper purging of ... » Go

The Blind Watchmaker

Type:: book
Date:: September 19, 1996
In:: Evolution, Origins + Science

Oxford zoologist Dawkins (The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype) trumpets his thesis in his subtitle almost guarantee enough that his book will stir controversy. Simply ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Pitiless Indifference

Type:: quote
Date:: January 01, 1995
In:: Existentialism, Naturalism and Scientism

The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Faith as a Mental Illness

Type:: quote
Date:: January 01, 1989
In:: Faith + Reason

Faith cannot move mountains (though generations of children are solemnly told the contrary and believe it). But it is capable of driving people to such ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Postulating God

Type:: quote
Date:: January 01, 1986
In:: Creation and Design, Theism

If we want to postulate a deity capable of engineering all the organized complexity in the world, either instantaneously or by guiding evolution, that deity must already ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Simulacra

Type:: quote
Date:: January 01, 1986
In:: Creation and Design, Evolution

We cannot disprove beliefs like these, especially if it is assumed that God took care that his interventions always closely mimicked what would be expected from evolution ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Creation Myths

Type:: quote
Date:: January 01, 1986
In:: Creation and Design

Nearly all peoples have developed their own creation myth, and the Genesis story is just the one that happened to have been adopted by one particular tribe ... » Go

Richard Dawkins on Opportunism

Type:: quote
Date:: January 01, 1986
In:: Evolution

Whatever the motive, the consequence is that if a reputable scholar breathes so much as a hint of criticism of some detail of current Darwinian theory, the ... » Go