Richard Dawkins

Professor Richard Dawkins

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Professor Richard Dawkins (b. 1941 Clinton Richard Dawkins) is a controversial evolutionary biologist, ethologist and author. As a consequence of his passionate defense of the theory of evolution and his attacks on religion and superstition in general he is known as "Darwin's Rottweiler".

He holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.

He initially became known to the general public following the publication of his first book The Selfish Gene (1976). This popularized a gene-centric view of evolution which subsequently went on to become the mainstream view. This book also introduced the world to the idea of memes - a concept which went on to become a meme itself.

Among his many best-selling books are The Extended Phenotype (1982) which talked about the way that phenotypic effects can extend beyond an organism's body and effect the surrounding environment, and The Blind Watchmaker (1986) which explains how natural selection works by small incremental cumulative steps, keeping what 'works' (in terms of the 'good' of the genes comprising the organism) and discarding what does not.

Since 1992 he has been married to the former actress Lalla Ward, with whom he has collaborated on several books, as she has contributed artwork and has also read audiobook versions of Dawkins' work. He has one daughter from a previous marriage.

According to the Brights movement website Dawkins is also an enthusiastic Bright and he expounded his reasons for this in an article in the British newspaper The Guardian.

Career and Qualifications - Highlights

Dawkins was an Assistant Professor of Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley from 1967 to 1969. In 1970 he was appointed a Lecturer, and ten years later he was appointed a Reader in Zoology at Oxford University. (For readers from the USA a "Reader" in a British university is approximately equivalent to an "Associate Professor" or "Full Professor" in the US.)

In 1995, he was appointed Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. This position was endowed by Charles Simonyi with an express intention that Dawkins be its first holder. He has been a fellow of New College, Oxford since 1970. (A fellow is part of the governing body of the university.)

Education, Positions and Degrees

For completeness his full academic career is shown below.

• 1954-1959 Oundle School
• 1959-1962 Balliol College, Oxford University
• 1962-1966 Research Student, Oxford University (D.Phil., 1966)
• 1965-1967 Research Assistant to Professor N.Tinbergen FRS
• 1967-1969 Assistant Professor of Zoology, University of California, Berkeley
• 1969-1970 Senior Research Officer, Department of Zoology, Oxford
• 1970-1990 University Lecturer (US: Adjunct Professor) in Zoology, and Fellow of New College, Oxford
• 1989 D.Sc. (Oxford)
• 1990-1995 Reader in Zoology (US: Associate Professor" or "Full Professor"), Oxford University
• 1995- Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science,University of Oxford, and Professorial Fellow of New College

Conservapedia's bizarre attack on Dawkins

"Not a professor, huh? How 'bout I 'intelligently redesign' your trachea?"

Conservapedia's article on Richard Dawkins contains a bizarre unsupported ad hominem attack suggesting that he is not a "real" professor (see here). His comprehensive response can be found here.

Essentially they make two claims

1. That Dawkins says that he is a Professor but that the university describes his position is a "post."

and

2. That Dawkins' job does not fit the definition given by the online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

In the spirit of investigation, RW editors have contacted both Oxford University and Merriam-Webster in an effort to find the truth.

Oxford University has replied saying ....

“” Dr. Dawkins, as he was then, was appointed to the Charles Simonyi Readership and subsequently had the title of Professor conferred in July 1996.

Merriam-Webster has replied saying ....

“” Since Dr. Dawkins holds two PhDs (in addition to numerous honorary degrees) and teaches at Oxford University, it is appropriate to use the title "Professor" for him.

No doubt our good friends at Conservapedia will take note in their article on Professor Dawkins.

• Update: This RW article was copied to the CP article debate. Subsequently "The Powers the Be" first attempted to dismiss them as fake and then claimed that the people who wrote them must have lacked the authority to write them.

Dawkins and Religion

Dawkins' treatment of evolution has frequently been the target of less literate Christian fundamentalists. In his latest book The God Delusion (2006) he outraged the religious establishment by counterattacking in their own back yard.

In the book he takes extreme exception to Stephen Jay Gould's ideas of Non-Overlapping Magisteria. He points out out that God either exists or he does not and that statements about his existence or non-existence can be tested by the scientific method in the same way as any other statement.

He also went out of his way to suggest that religious teaching could be considered as a form of child abuse.

While many have praised the book, some theological academics have criticized the book because they feel that he has not mastered their terms of art. Dawkins has responded by saying: "Most of us happily disavow fairies, astrology, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster without first immersing ourselves in books of Pastafarian theology etc. "

Perhaps surprisingly for some, Dawkins does not explicitly state that God does not exist. Instead he uses the example of Russell's Teapot to highlight the extreme improbability of the existence of God. As he points out, absolutely proving the non-existence of anything is very difficult and consequently we should assume that God has the same probability of existence as fairies at the bottom of the garden. That is, they are something not completely and utterly impossible, but so wildly improbable that we can operate under the working assumption that they do not exist.

The God Delusion: support and criticism

There has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding The God Delusion. Most criticism has come from religious fundamentalists and does not warrant repeating.

More cogent criticism has involved two particular issues: The form of the message, and the content of the message.

In form, Dawkins' message on atheism is quite abrasive to many. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it has alienated many others who fight unreason, especially those who are not atheists, and those who tread along the NOMA fence.

In content, many have argued that he is not the finest philosopher of atheism, and that his work contains many inconsistencies and poor examples. However, it is accessible to the public at large, which cannot be said of many of the great philosophical atheist works.

Dawkins' critics were brilliantly parodied in an article which pretended to criticize the non-existent book The Fascism Delusion

Dawkins and Pseudoscience

Dawkins is no less critical of pseudoscience than he is of religion. He recently made his views known about faith healers, psychic mediums, angel therapists, "aura photographers", astrologers, tarot card readers and water diviners, and claimed that Britain is gripped by "an epidemic of superstitious thinking".

Quotes

• “We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”
• "If you are in possession of this revolutionary secret of science, why not prove it and be hailed as the new Newton? Of course, we know the answer. You can't do it. You are a fake."
• "Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence."
• “We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.”
• “Nearly all peoples have developed their own creation myths, and the Genesis story is just the one that happened to have been adopted by one particular tribe of Middle Eastern herders. It has no more special status than the belief of a particular West African tribe that the world was created from the excrement of ants.”

Books Published

Richard Dawkins has published a vast range of material. His books are:

• The Selfish Gene (1976)
• The Extended Phenotype (1982)
• The Blind Watchmaker (1986)
• River Out of Eden (1995)
• Climbing Mount Improbable (1996)
• Unweaving the Rainbow (1997)
• A Devil’s Chaplain (2003)
• The Ancestor’s Tale (2004)
• The God Delusion (2006)

See also

• Answers in Genesis Dawkins interview controversy
• Meme
• Visit to the Cinema.