Richard Dawkins

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Dawkins in 2010

Richard Dawkins is a British zoologist, formerly the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is also a very outspoken atheist.

Much of his popular published work is on zoology, biology and evolution. His 2006 work, The God Delusion is concerned primarily with religion, belief and the effects it has had, on society, and why such should be considered anathema to those who value life.

Dawkins is well-known for his outspokenness against religion. He is famous for his opinion that labeling children with the religion of their parents is tantamount to child abuse, and for comparing the spread of religious beliefs to the spread of viruses.

Dawkins coined the term "meme" to describe how ideas (notably, religious belief) are spread and evolve using mechanisms similar to those of biological evolution.

Along with other prominent new atheism authors, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens, Dawkins participated in a two hour round-table discussion entitled the The Four Horsemen.

Arguments and coined concepts[edit]

Quotes[edit]

On faith[edit]

"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.[1]"
"Faith, being belief that isn't based on evidence, is the principal vice of any religion.[2]"

Publications[edit]

Documentaries[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Richard Dawkins, Untitled Lecture, Edinburgh Science Festival (1992)
  2. [1]

External links[edit]


v · d Atheism
Terminology   Etymology of the word atheist · Weak atheism · Strong atheism · Agnosticism · Atheist vs. agnostic · Tenets and dogma
Contemporary literature   The End of Faith · The God Delusion · God: The Failed Hypothesis · Letter to a Christian Nation · God Is Not Great · Irreligion · 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God
Classic literature   Why I Am Not a Christian
Atheist and secular groups   Atheist groups · Secular charities · How American Non-Atheists view Atheists
Contemporary authors   Richard Dawkins · Daniel Dennett · A. C. Grayling · Sam Harris · Guy P. Harrison · John Allen Paulos · James Randi · Victor Stenger
Internet non-believers   Reginald Vaughn Finley · PZ Myers
Writers and philosophers   David Hume · Robert Ingersoll · Friedrich Nietzsche · Bertrand Russell · Carl Sagan · Voltaire · Jean-Paul Sartre · John Stuart Mill · Karl Marx · Heraclitus
v · d Science
v · d General science
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Scientific Disciplines   Physics · Biology · Chemistry · Psychology · Medical Science · Mathematics
History of science   Heliocentrism · Quantum mechanics
Champions of reason   Carl Sagan · James Randi


v · d Biology
Evolution   Natural selection
Abiogenesis   The Urey-Miller experiment
Evolutionary straw men   Life just exploded from nothing · So you think we came from monkeys · How did the first dog find a mate · Crocoducks · Banana argument · 747 Junkyard argument · Irreducible complexity · Chuck Missler's jar of peanut butter · What good is half a wing?
Notable Biologists   Charles Darwin · Richard Dawkins · PZ Myers
Notable quacks   William Dembski · Michael Behe · Geoffrey Simmons · Ken Ham · Michael Cremo


v · d Physics
Concepts   Cosmology · Big bang · Relativity theory · Black holes · Quantum mechanics
Physics straw men   Fine-tuning argument · Anthropic principle
Notable Physicists   Isaac Newton · Albert Einstein · Richard Feynman · Stephen Hawking
Notable Quacks   Dinesh D'Souza · Ray Comfort


v · d Mathematics
Statistics   Sample size · Selection bias · Standard deviation · Statistical significance · Statistical probability · Meta probability · Gambler's fallacy
Mathematics and religion   Biblical value of pi