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Richard Dawkins

Evolutionary biologist and prominent atheist author.

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Richard Dawkins

via Wikipedia: List of biologists · see source

Born on 26 March 1941, Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist, zoologist, and author who holds the title of emeritus fellow at New College, Oxford.[1] Dawkins is a well-known atheist and is recognized as one of the "Four Horsemen of New Atheism," alongside Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris.[2]

Life and work

His father was an agricultural civil servant in the British Colonial Service in Nyasaland.[3] He studied zoology at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1962, and received his D.Phil. by 1966.[4][5] Dawkins argued for atheism in his 2006 book The God Delusion, which achieved international bestseller status.[2][6]

What the cited sources add

A 2013 Guardian interview notes that Dawkins took part in protests against the Vietnam war.[7] The same interview reports that Dawkins's father was a botanist working in Nyasaland.[7] A 2003 Guardian interview states that Dawkins was born in Kenya 62 years ago.[8] That interview also quotes Dawkins saying he realized Darwinism was a far superior explanation for life's complexity.[8]

A BBC interview transcript notes that Dawkins believes The Extended Phenotype marks his biggest claim to scientific innovation.[9] The AHA criticized Dawkins for using "the guise of scientific discourse" to "demean marginalised groups".[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Richard Dawkins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Holt, "Philosophy of Religion" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Richard Dawkins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Appleyard, "Books that helped to change the world", The Sunday Times, 19 July 2009; Elmhirst, "Is Richard Dawkins destroying his reputation?", The Guardian, 9 June 2015; "Richard Dawkins on Charles Darwin", BBC News, 14 February 2009 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Richard Dawkins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dawkins, Richard 1941– Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series", Cengage Learning; Tortoise, "OMG – A ThinkIn with Richard Dawkins", YouTube}}{{cbignore, 2 December 2019; Dawkins, "My mother is 100 today. She & my late father gave me an idyllic childhood. Her writings on that time are quoted in An Appetite for Wonder", Twitter; Dawkins, "My beloved mother died today, a month short of her 103rd birthday. As a young wartime bride she was brave and adventurous. Her epic journey up Africa, illegally accompanying my father, is recounted i en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Richard Dawkins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Alister E. McGrath, Dawkins' God: From The Selfish Gene to The God Delusion (2015), p. 33; Ohlheiser, "Richard Dawkins Defends 'Mild' Pedophilia, Again and Again", The Atlantic, 11 September 2013; Hattenstone, "Darwin's child", The Guardian, 10 February 2003; "The Oundle Lecture Series", Oundle School, 2012b; Dawkins 2015, p. 175 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Richard Dawkins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dawkins, "Selective pecking in the domestic chick", bodleian.ox.ac.uk, 1966; Dawkins, "Curriculum vitae", 1 January 2006; Dawkins, "Richard Dawkins: CV", 1 January 2006; Schrage, "Revolutionary Evolutionist", July 1995; Dawkins, "A threshold model of choice behaviour", Animal Behaviour, 1969, p. 120–133 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Richard Dawkins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Powell, "A Knack for Bashing Orthodoxy", The New York Times, 19 September 2011; Dawkins 2015, p. 175; Hooper, "The rise of the New Atheists", CNN, 9 November 2006; Dawkins 2006, p. 169–172; "Richard Dawkins on militant atheism", TED Conferences, LLC, February 2002 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Anthony, "Richard Dawkins: 'I don't think I am strident or aggressive'", The Guardian, 15 September 2013. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  8. Hattenstone, "Darwin's child", The Guardian, 10 February 2003. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  9. ""Belief" interview", BBC, 5 April 2004. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
  10. Flood, "Richard Dawkins loses 'humanist of the year' title over trans comments", The Guardian, 20 April 2021. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Richard Dawkins (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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