Richard Dawkins

[ 1941 - ]

[ Author Bio (Off Site) ]

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Book

The Blind Watchmaker (1986) (Off Site)

Articles

Good and Bad Reasons for Believing (Off Site)

From How Things Are: A Science Toolkit for the Mind, edited by John Brockman and Katinka Matson. Although this was written by Dawkins for his then ten year-old daughter, it serves as an excellent "critical thinking starter kit" for the Beginner.

Is Science a Religion? (1996) (Off Site)

Speech given at the 1996 American Humanist Association conference, in acceptance of the Humanist of the Year award.

Is Science Killing the Soul? (1999) (Off Site)

A dialogue between Richard Dawkins and psychologist Steven Pinker.

The "Know-Nothings," the "Know-Alls," and the "No-Contests" (Off Site)

Nick Pollard Talks to Richard Dawkins (1995) (Off Site)

Nick Pollard of Christians in Science asks Dawkins about his views on religion.

Richard Dawkins on Evolution and Religion (1996) (Off Site)

Transcript of a PBS "ThinkTank" interview with the famous evolutionary biologist at Oxford University.

Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder (1996) (Off Site)

Lecture given on BBC1 Television on November 12th, 1996.

Science, Reason, and Genetics (April 17, 2000) (Real Audio) (Off Site) with Christopher Lydon

The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins says your genes care about themselves, not about you. You're just a vehicle to make more genes. Given his view, some of Dawkins' readers have asked him how he gets up in the morning knowing he is nothing but a collection of selfish genes in an uncaring universe. But Richard Dawkins wonders why people consider science so bleakly, thinking it robs life of warmth and worth. To him, science is filled with wonder, beauty, and awe. Dawkins contends that when Newton explained the prism, he didn't rob the rainbow of its mystery as the poet Keats complained, he opened the door to the greater wonders of relativity and an expanding universe. The interview includes a fascinating exchange between Dawkins and Kenneth Miller during the call-in segment.

When Religion Steps on Science's Turf by Richard Dawkins (1998) (Off Site)

Viruses of the Mind (1991) (Off Site)

August 15, 1994 Interview With Sheena McDonald of Channel 4 (U.K.) (1994) (Off Site)

A transcript of the 1994 Channel-4 (U.K.) interview with biologist Richard Dawkins.

See also:

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science

"The enlightenment is under threat. So is reason. So is truth. So is science, especially in the schools of America. I am one of those scientists who feels that it is no longer enough just to get on and do science. We have to devote a significant proportion of our time and resources to defending it from deliberate attack from organized ignorance. We even have to go out on the attack ourselves, for the sake of reason and sanity. But it must be a positive attack, for science and reason have so much to give. They are not just useful, they enrich our lives in the same kind of way as the arts do." - Dawkins

The World of Richard Dawkins page [ Index ] (Off Site)

Maintained by John Catalano, this is the unofficial web site of Richard Dawkins. This site contains a broad sample of Dawkins' writings, including material that would be off-topic for the Secular Web.

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Richard Dawkins won both the Royal Society of Literature Award and the Los Angeles Times Literary Prize in 1987 for The Blind Watchmaker. The television film of the book, shown in the 'Horizon' series, won the Sci-Tech Prize for the Best Science Programme of 1987. He has also won the 1989 Silver Medal of the Zoological Society of London and the 1990 Royal Society Michael Faraday Award for the furtherance of the public understanding of science. In 1994 he won the Nakayama Prize for Human Science and in 1995 was awarded an Honorary D.Litt. by the University of St Andrews. Humanist of the Year Award 1996. Since 1996 he has been Vice President of the British Humanist Association. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997. Winner of the 1997 (Fifth) International Cosmos Prize in Commemoration of Expo' 90.

Richard Dawkins's first book, The Selfish Gene (1976; second edition, 1989), became an immediate international bestseller and, like The Blind Watchmaker, was translated into all the major languages. Its sequel, The Extended Phenotype, followed in 1982. His other bestsellers include River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), and Unweaving the Rainbow (1998).

Visit the Richard Dawkins Foundation For Reason & Science website.