History Creator / RichardDawkins

Richard Dawkins (born in 1941 as Clinton Richard Dawkins) is an evolutionary biologist and an outspoken UsefulNotes/{{atheis|m}}t 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 to the point where [[AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame it tends to eclipse all his other work]], and is seen as a rallying cry and at least partially responsible for the recent increase in atheism.

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]] [[AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame it tends to eclipse all his other work]], and is seen as a rallying cry and at least partially responsible for the recent increase in atheism.

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 controversial 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]] [[AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame it tends to eclipse all his other work]], and is seen as a rallying cry and at least partially responsible for the recent increase in atheism.

* AuthorTract: 'The God Delusion' is this regarding Dawkins views on theism and religion.

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]] [[AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame it tends to eclipse all his other work]], and is seen as a rallying cry and at least partially responsible for the recent increase in atheism.

->''Mock them. Ridicule them in public. Don’t fall for the convention that we’re all too polite to talk about religion.''
-->-- Reason Rally March 24 2012'

* SymphonyOfScience: Quotes from Dawkins' documentaries are common. The 5th song, "''The Poetry of Reality''" is named after a quote on the quotes page.

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* SymphonyOfScience: Quotes from Dawkins' documentaries are common. The 5th song, "''The Poetry of Reality''" is named after the quote at the top of this page.

->"''There's real poetry, in the real world. Science is the Poetry of Reality.''"
-->-- ''The Enemies of Reason''

* ''A Devil's Chaplain'' (2003) - A collection of essays written by Dawkins. The subjects range from the obvious topics of evolution and religion to more eclectic issues such as musings on the trial by jury system and two eulogies for DouglasAdams.

He played himself in a news clip in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]]. He's also married to Lalla Ward, who played the second Romana in that show. The two met via Creator/DouglasAdams (who was writing the show at the same time Lalla Ward was starring in it), who Dawkins referred to as "possibly my only convert".

* ''The Selfish Gene'' (1976) - Dawkins discusses the gene-centred evolutionary theory, using it to explain both competitive and cooperative behaviour between individual organisms. More recent additions also include two chapters: one is derived from the TV programme 'Nice Guys Finish First' (see below), the other develops the idea of the Extended Phenotype, which was expanded upon in the book of the same name.

* FirstWorldProblems: Invoked in "[[http://www.redlightpolitics.info/post/7263060171/dear-muslima-stop-whining-will-you-yes-yes-i Dear Muslima]]", written in response to "[[ScandalGate Elevatorgate]]" in which feminist "Skepchick", Rebecca Watson, complained that a man hit on her in an elevator.

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]] [[AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame 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 "{{meme}}" 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 [[ShapedLikeItself memetic competition]] the word meme became more popular and the word culturogen is almost never used anymore. Although he often refers to it, he admits his initial coinage was not a serious cultural theory but was mostly used to make an illustrative point about his theory of replicators.

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 [[TheFundamentalist militant atheist]], his modus operandi is to vocally criticise religious (and superstitious) ideas and practices. 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 [[LetsGetDangerous 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 [[note]] the Pope has diplomatic immunity as a head of state, so this would be legally impossible[[/note]], and he supported the Singh side of the Singh vs. Chiropody controversy.

Needless to say, his passionate advocacy of atheism, his contempt of religion, particularly monotheism, as a "Virus of the Mind", and his tendency to host comments like "Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings" on his website ticks a lot of people off. Dawkins argues that he's just stating the truth as he sees it.

In July '11, he unexpectedly became the target of another group: When the blogger "skepchick" Rebecca Watson had an UncomfortableElevatorMoment at an atheist conference in Dublin. She made [[http://skepchick.org/2011/06/about-mythbusters-robot-eyes-feminism-and-jokes/ a video]] about it, explaining how she felt, advising men not to act that way themselves and Dawkins' [[http://www.redlightpolitics.info/post/7263060171/dear-muslima-stop-whining-will-you-yes-yes-i answer]] in deep SarcasmMode ([[AppealToWorseProblems oppressed Muslimas shouldn't complain, western women are asked out in elevators]]!) created trouble in the blogosphere.

* BoomerangBigot: If atheism is considered a religion, Dawkins is this.

* HardOnSoftScience: He doesn't think much of fields where repeatable tests are not possible-theology is one of his favorite targets.

* MindVirus: His view of religion. Dawkins defines theism as a "delusion," despite the fact that, medically speaking, a delusion is defined as a fixed belief that persists despite hard evidence to the contrary and does not include beliefs influenced by cultural or social norms, such as religious beliefs.

* NotSoAboveItAll/NotSoDifferent: Dawkins has been accused of racism, misogyny (the accusation are not unfounded), and has even asked whether atheists should [[LetsGetDangerous take the gloves off against religion]], as mentioned above; the propagation of these are some of the reasons that he and people like him cite religion as wrong. Subverted as [[CaptainObvious not all religious people or most religions encourage or perpetuate these prejudices or extremism]].

* SelectiveObliviousness:
** His book ''The God Delusion'' focuses on the extreme minority and makes no mention of the religious figures who've made positive contributions to society. Also one of the (not unjustified) accusations levelled at him regarding most of his books, most notably ''The God Delusion''. He did not research the religions, their teachings and deliberately chose to highlight the shaky arguments favouring religion while ignoring the feasible ones.
** Oxford theologian Alister [=McGrath=] (author of The Dawkins Delusion? and Dawkins' God) argues that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology, and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently. In reply, Dawkins asks "[[LogicalFallacies do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?]]" (Yes, [[ShownTheirWork if you were going to write a plausible book about why leprechauns aren't real]]).

In ''The Extended Phenotype'', he coined the word "{{meme}}" 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 [[ShapedLikeItself memetic competition]] the word meme became more popular and the word culturogen is almost never used anymore. Although he often refers to it, he admits his initial coinage was not a serious cultural theory but was mostly used to make an illustrative point about his theory of replicators.

He played himself in a news clip in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E12TheStolenEarth The Stolen Earth]]". He's also married to Lalla Ward, who played the second Romana in that show. The two met via DouglasAdams (who was writing the show at the same time Lalla Ward was starring in it), who Dawkins referred to as "possibly my only convert".

''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' made fun of him in the 2-Part Episode ''Go God Go'', and [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne the only aspect of it he complained about was that they didn't give him a proper English accent]].

** His book ''The God Delusion'' focuses on the extreme minority and makes no mention of the religious figures who've made positive contributions to society. Also one of the (not unjustified) accusations levelled at him regarding most of his books, most notably ''The God Delusion''. He did not research the religions, their teachings and deliberately chose the shaky arguments while ignoring the plausible ones.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Often a target of (not unfounded) accusations of racism and misogyny, but his contributions to both science and organized atheism can't be denied. While the accusations of racism and misogyny are debatable, he is an anti-theistic bigot, so this trope still applies.

* SelectiveObliviousness: His book ''The God Delusion'' focuses on the extreme minority and makes no mention of the religious figures who've made positive contributions to society. Also one of the (not unjustified) accusations levelled at him regarding most of his books, most notably ''The God Delusion''. He did not research the religions, their teachings and deliberately chose the shaky arguments while ignoring the plausible ones.
** Oxford theologian Alister Mcgarth (author of The Dawkins Delusion? and Dawkins' God) argues that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology, and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently. In reply, Dawkins asks "[[LogicalFallacies do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?]]" (Yes, [[ShownTheirWork if you were going to write a plausible book about why leprechauns aren't real]]).

* NotSoAboveItAll: Dawkins has been accused of racism and misogyny (and the accusation are not unfounded); the propagation of these are some of the reasons that he and people like him cite religion as wrong.

** Oxford theologian Alister Mcgarth (author of The Dawkins Delusion? and Dawkins' God) argues that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology, and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently. In reply, Dawkins asks "do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?" (Yes, [[ShownTheirWork if you were going to write a plausible book about why leprechauns aren't real]]).

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Dawkins never planned to go into scientific writing. He first started writing ''The Selfish Gene'' because the 1973 Coal Miners Strike caused three months of sporadic blackouts (The Three Day Week) that prevented him from working in the lab.

** Oxford theologian Alister Mcgarth author of The Dawkins Delusion? and Dawkins' God) argues that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology, and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently. In reply, Dawkins asks "do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?" (Yes, [[ShownTheirWork if you were going to write a plausible book about why leprechauns aren't real]]).

** Oxford theologian Alister McGarth (author of The Dawkins Delusion? and Dawkins' God) argues that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology, and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently. In reply, Dawkins asks "do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?" (Yes, [[ShownTheirWork if you were going to write a plausible book about why leprechauns aren't real]]).

* DidNot

** Oxford theologian Alister McGarth (author of The Dawkins Delusion? and Dawkins' God) argues that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology, and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently. In reply, Dawkins asks "do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?" (Not necessarily, [[ShownTheirWork but you should if you were going to write a plausible book about why leprechauns aren't real]]).

** Oxford theologian Alister McGrath (author of The Dawkins Delusion? and Dawkins' God) argues that Dawkins is ignorant of Christian theology, and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently. In reply, Dawkins asks "do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in leprechauns?" (Not necessarily, [[ShownInTheirWork but you should if you were going to write a plausible book about why leprechauns aren't real]]).

* SelectiveObliviousness: His book ''The God Delusion'' focuses on the extreme minority and makes no mention of the religious figures who've made positive contributions to society.
* ShoutOut: Guess which page number the first Creator/DouglasAdams quote in ''The God Delusion'' is on.
* TheyJustDidntCare: One of the (not unjustified) accusations levelled at him regarding most of his books, most notably ''The God Delusion''. He did not research the religions, their teachings and deliberately chose the shaky arguments while ignoring the plausible ones.