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Richard Dawkins: Difference between revisions
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Richard Dawkins (born Clinton Richard Dawkins) is an evolutionary biologist and an outspoken [[Useful Notes/Atheism|atheist]] who, in addition to his work in biology, is also critical of religion and religious people, as well as of supernaturalism, superstition and alternative medicine. He has written and presented several documentaries on British television, has written a number of books, and gave the Royal Society Christmas Lectures in 1991.
Of his works to date, Richard Dawkins is best known for ''The Selfish Gene'', a book on evolutionary biology from a gene-centred perspective, the two-part documentary ''Root of all Evil?'', and his 2006 book ''The God Delusion''. In the latter, he presents a case against the idea of a theistic god and criticises the attitudes and behaviours of religious practitioners. The book was not the first criticising religion, and it was not the first time that Dawkins had done so in his works, but it has attracted much attention [[Flanderization|to the point where]] [[All There Is to Know About "The Crying Game"|it tends to eclipse all his other work]], and is seen as a rallying cry and at least partially responsible for the recent atheist uprising. In ''The Selfish Gene'', he coined the word "[[Me Me]]" to discuss how culture is transmitted, by analogy with genes and with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimesis mimesis]. Interestingly enough, a rival coinage, culturogen, was coined at roughly the same time, but by a process of [[Shaped Like Itself|memetic competition]] the word meme became more popular and the word culturogen is almost never used anymore.
His style of presentation, both written and spoken, makes hearing what he has to say both easy to understand and easy on the ears. Despite being accused of being a [[The Fundamentalist|militant atheist]], the worst he's ever done is vocally criticise religious (and superstitious) ideas and practices and he relies primarily on public campaigns to raise awareness, most notably funding the atheist bus slogan campaign: buses were sent out in London bearing on their sides the slogan 'There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life'. He has asked whether atheists should [[Let's Get Dangerous|take the gloves off against religion]], but has since remained largely quiet. This sort of thing is usually done alongside his work promoting scientific understanding among the general public, which was his role as Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University (a position that he held from 1995 to 2008, when the mandatory retirement age rules of the University forced him to retire,) Oxford also being the place where he studied. More recently, he campaigned during the Pope visit to Britain to have the Pope arrested on suspicion of conspiring with other levels of the Church to cover up child abuse scandals, and he supported the Singh side of the Singh vs. Chiropody controversy.
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