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Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins Quotes

Ethologist

Richard Dawkins is a British ethologist, writer, and thinker, known for his contributions to evolutionary theory, particularly in the field of modern synthesis. He is widely recognized for his best-selling book 'The Selfish Gene', which explains the central role of genes in biological evolution. Dawkins has made significant impacts in the field of science communication and has sparked widespread discussions about human behavior and morality.

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Famous Richard Dawkins Quotes

“It sounds superficially fair. But it presupposes that that there is something in Christian theology to be ignorant about. The entire thrust of my position is that Christian theology is a non-subject. It is empty. Vacuous. Devoid of coherence or content. I imagine that McGrath would join me in expressing disbelief in fairies, astrology and Thor's hammer. How would he respond if a fairyologist, astrologer or Viking accused him of ignorance of their respective subjects?”

“I'm not much given to straight, irony-free hero-worship.”

Given Hero Worship Irony Hero Worship

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Science is the disinterested search for the objective truth about the material world.”

World Materials Objectives Material World Disinterested Objective Truth

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I would like to find a way in which people in Saudi Arabia could learn that they can be something other than a Muslim. Some people may not realize this. Of course, there is the problem that you can get in trouble or get stoned.”

People Way May Problem Courses Realizing Trouble Arabia Saudi Arabia Saudis

Author:Richard Dawkins

“It's a flaw in our argument, for sure. By any reading of evolutionary theory, creationists ought to have died out ages ago. They serve no function in the planet's ecosystem, and no other species has survived so long while in such fundamental disagreement with observable reality. If I wasn't such an ardent believer in secular materialism, I'd wager this is really troubling Darwin in the afterlife.”

Ifs Long Reality Age Reading Planets Theory Ought Argument Function Died Fundamentals Species Believer Materialism Flaws Afterlife Secular Survived Disagreement Ecosystems Ardent Wagers

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I was brought up in a family which valued natural history. Both my parents knew the names of all the British wildflowers, so as we went walking the country, I was constantly being exposed to a natural history sort of knowledge.”

Country Names Parent Natural Walking British Exposed Natural History Wildflowers

Author:Richard Dawkins

“The human psyche has two great sicknesses: the urge to carry vendetta across generations, and the tendency to fasten group labels on people rather than see them as individuals. Abrahamic religion gives strong sanction to both-and mixes explosively with both. Only the willfully blind could fail to implicate the divisive force of religion in most, if not all, of the violent enmities in the world today.”

People Ifs World Giving Humans Two Today Individual Strong Force Failing Generations Groups Blind Violent Tendencies Labels Sickness Urges World Today Sanctions Enmity Vendetta Human Psyche

Author:Richard Dawkins

“The universe is a strange and wondrous place. The truth is quite odd enough to need no help from pseudoscientific charlatans.”

Needs Enough Helping Universe Strange Truth Is Odd Wondrous Charlatans

Author:Richard Dawkins

“How any government could promote the Vardy academies in the North-East of England is absolutely beyond me. Tony Blair defends them on grounds of diversity, but it should be unthinkable in the 21st century to have a school whose head of science believes the world is less than 10,000 years old.”

World Should Years Believe Government School Century Diversity England East 21st Century Academy Unthinkable Blair North East

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I shall not make an argument ad hominem. My argument is ad bullshitem.”

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Science has taught us, against all intuition, that apparently solid things like crystals and rocks are really almost entirely composed of empty space. And the familiar illustration is the nucleus of an atom is a fly in the middle of a sports stadium, and the next atom is in the next sports stadium.”

Next Sports Space Middle Rocks Taught Empty Intuition Familiar Atoms Crystals Stadiums Taught Us Illustration Empty Space Nucleus

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Yesterday's dangerous idea is today's orthodoxy and tomorrow's cliché.”

Ideas Today Dangerous Tomorrow Yesterday Orthodoxy Dangerous Ideas

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Faith is the lack of evidence, and it shouldn't be that difficult to convince people that the right reason to believe something is that there is evidence for it. People do not innately go for this view, but nevertheless it is not that difficult to teach.”

People Believe Reason Difficult Views Teach Evidence Convince Nevertheless

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Again, it is belief without evidence. In the case of Stalinism, people actually distorted science, because it was for the good of the Communist Party.”

People Belief Party Cases Evidence Communist Communist Party Stalinism

Author:Richard Dawkins

“If you want to do bad things, science is the most powerful way to do them.”

Ifs Way Want Powerful Most Powerful Bad Things

Author:Richard Dawkins

“The whole of technology depends on a scientific background, and of course technology can be used for evil purposes. You can't blame science for that.”

Whole Used Purpose Courses Evil Technology Depends Blame Backgrounds

Author:Richard Dawkins

“It can be consoling to think your children are in heaven. You have got to understand that that doesn't make it true. Many people cannot understand that distinction.”

People Thinking Children Heaven Our Children Your Children Distinction True Man Consoling

Author:Richard Dawkins

“In two senses: One is that you cannot go on the street and shout that you are an atheist, the other is that you are never given the intellectual framework for calling your faith into question.”

Two Given Streets Goes On Calling Intellectual Atheist Senses Framework

Author:Richard Dawkins

“It is important not to confuse race and religion.”

Important Race Race And Religion

Author:Richard Dawkins

“That was unfortunate. I should have compared religion with religion and compared Islam not with Trinity College but with Jews, because the number of Jews who have won Nobel Prizes is phenomenally high.”

Should Numbers College Should Have Islam Jew Prize Unfortunate Nobel Nobel Prize Trinity Trinity College

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Race does not come into it. It is pure religion and culture. Something about the cultural tradition of Jews is way, way more sympathetic to science and learning and intellectual pursuits than Islam. That would have been a fair comparison.”

Way Doe Has Beens Culture Race Pure Intellectual Fairs Tradition Islam Jew Pursuit Comparison Sympathetic

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Ironically, I originally wrote the tweet with Jews and thought, That might give offense. And so I thought I better change it.”

Giving Might Jew Offense Tweet

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I think more than 20 percent of Nobel Prizes have been won by Jews.”

Thinking Has Beens Percent Jew Prize Nobel Nobel Prize

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Most of the ones [Nobel prizes] that have gone to Muslims have been peace prizes, and the [number of Muslims] who have gotten them for scientific work is exceedingly low. But in Jews, it is exceedingly high.”

Has Beens Numbers Gone Lows Jew Prize Nobel Nobel Prize

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I think that [Paul] Bloom's approach - and others who take it - is not so much that there is a precise genetic basis to faith. But there is a genetic basis to a psychological predisposition that manifests itself as faith and religion under the right conditions.”

Thinking Conditions Approach Bases Psychological Precise

Author:Richard Dawkins

“When I sign books, I get lines of people and what they usually say is: "Thank you. You have changed my life." I am really moved by that.”

People Book Lines Changed Moved Changed My Life You Have Changed

Author:Richard Dawkins

“They are either people of faith who have lost their faith from reading my books, or they are people who had already lost their faith, and something about my books encouraged them to affirm that.”

People Book Reading Lost

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I remember at the age of six regaling my poor little sister with stories about the planets, and how far away they were and which ones might have life.”

Littles Stories Might Age Remember Poor Planets Six Far Away Little Sister

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I'm fond of science fiction. But not all science fiction.”

Fiction Science Fiction

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I'm not so fond of the sort of science fiction that isn't really science fiction but is sometimes thought to be - Gothic princesses and white horses and bats and castles and things.”

Sometimes White Fiction Horse Science Fiction Princess Bats Castles Gothic White Horse

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I've seen [Lalla Ward] episodes of "Doctor Who." They're good, at least partly because the scripts were written by Douglas Adams.”

Written Doctors Scripts Episodes Doctor Who

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I think Douglas [Adams] is writing with an eye to irony for adults at the same time as entertaining children.”

Thinking Writing Children Eye Adults Irony Entertaining

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I do like Philip Pullman.And that's an exception because Philip Pullman's books allow magic.”

Book Magic Exception Philip

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Professor Challenger, Conan Doyle's science hero, was a sort of irascible man constantly bellowing at people, so he was a little bit of a departure from both of those stereotypes.”

People Men Littles Bits Hero Little Bit Professors Stereotype Departure Conan

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I don't shout people down. I argue people down, perhaps.”

Author:Richard Dawkins

“People who criticize The Selfish Gene like that often haven't read it. The selfish gene accounts for altruism toward kin and individuals who might be in a position to reciprocate your altruism.”

People Might Individual Havens Position Accounts Selfish Criticize Genes Altruism Selfish Gene Reciprocate

Author:Richard Dawkins

“There is another kind of altruism that seems to go beyond that, a kind of super-altruism, which humans appear to have. And I think that does need a Darwinian explanation.”

Thinking Needs Humans Kind Doe Seems Explanation Altruism

Author:Richard Dawkins

“The rule of thumb based into the brain by natural selection would not have been, Be nice to your kin and be nice to potential reciprocators. It would have been, Be nice to everybody, because everybody would have been included.”

Has Beens Natural Brain Nice Being Nice Selection Thumbs Natural Selection

Author:Richard Dawkins

“We have sexual lust even though we know perfectly well that, because we're using contraception, it is not going to result in the propagation of our genes. That doesn't matter, because the lust was built into our brains at a time when there was no contraception.”

Knows Wells Matter Results Brain Built Lust Genes Contraception Propagation

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I really, really would like to see religion go away altogether.”

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I think from my point of view - I won't say it doesn't matter whether [Darwinian explanations] are right or wrong, it's just sufficient in some cases, for me, to be able to say, Well, at least it's not totally implausible from a Darwinian point of view.”

Thinking Wells Matter Able Views Cases Point Of View Explanation Sufficient

Author:Richard Dawkins

“It would be really worrying if, as a Darwinian, it was impossible to think of ways in which our behavior could be explained.”

Ifs Thinking Way Would Be Worry Impossible Behavior

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I've always been antagonistic to any naïve application of the selfish gene theory to politics. Some people have attempted to suggest that it means we are selfish or we should be selfish.”

People Should Mean Theory Selfish Application Genes Being Selfish Selfish Gene

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I read novels for entertainment rather than for edification, so I tend not to read the sort of novels that are said to illuminate the human condition.”

Humans Said Novel Conditions Entertainment Human Condition Edification

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I have never quite understood - and this is no doubt my failing - I never quite understood why you would read fiction to understand the human condition.”

Humans Fiction Doubt Failing Conditions Understood No Doubt Human Condition Never Quit

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I'm easily persuaded that a really good novelist who gets inside somebody else's head could be serving a valuable purpose. I enjoy satirical novels that take a wry, humorous, ironic look at modern life.”

Looks Purpose Enjoy Novel Modern Humorous Valuable Novelists Serving Ironic Modern Life Satirical Wry

Author:Richard Dawkins

“I'm a sucker for nice religious leaders. I fall for it every time.”

Fall Religious Leader Nice Sucker Religious Leaders

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Pope Francis seems to be a much nicer man than Pope Benedict, but I'm not sure that his views on things that really matter are all that different. Whereas Benedict was perhaps a wolf in wolf's clothing, Francis is perhaps a wolf in sheep's clothing.”

Men Different Matter Seems Views Not Sure Clothings Sheep Pope Wolves In Sheep's Clothing Pope Benedict

Author:Richard Dawkins

“There isn't [in new atheism]. Nothing that wasn't in Bertrand Russell or probably Robert Ingersoll. But I suppose it is more of a political effect, in that all these books happened to come out at the same time. I like to think that we have some influence.”

Thinking Book Political Happened Atheism Influence Effects

Author:Richard Dawkins

“There's an element of paradox there - that at least you know where you stand with the fundamentalists. I mean, they're absolutely clear in their error and their stupidity, and so you can really go after them.”

Knows Mean Clear Elements Errors Stupidity Paradox Where You Stand

Author:Richard Dawkins

About the Author

Born: March 26, 1941
Known for: Ethologist
Quotes: 884

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Popular Topics

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Books & Sources

The God DelusionRelated source material

The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without DesignRelated source material

The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary editionRelated source material

A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and LoveRelated source material

Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for WonderRelated source material

A Devil's ChaplainRelated source material

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for EvolutionRelated source material

The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the GeneRelated source material

The Selfish GeneRelated source material

River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of LifeRelated source material

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