Richard Dawkins
"has established himself
as a biological guru" with the publication of books detailing and
expanding upon Darwinian theory, according to Times Literary
Supplement contributor Stephen R. L. Clark.  Wired Magazine says
this "Revolutionary Evolutionist" is "the first true ethologist of
the gene". Richard Dawkins "has been concerned to convince the literate
public that they must now take evolutionary theory seriously as the
context within which to think about ourselves and the world," writes Clark
"and he strives to bring his theories to an audience of lay readers
through comprehensible analogies and clear writing."

Personal
Born
March 26, 1941, son of Clinton John (a farmer) and Jean Mary Vyvyan
(Ladner) Dawkins; married author Marian Stamp, August 19, 1967
(divorced, 1984); married Eve Barham, June 1, 1984 (divorced);
children-Juliet Emma; married actress Lalla Ward,
1992.

Education
Balliol College, Oxford, B.A., 1962,
M.A., 1966, D.Phil., 1966.

Career
University of California, Berkeley,
assistant professor of zoology, 1967-69; Oxford University, Oxford,
England, lecturer in zoology and fellow of New College, 1970-90, reader in
zoology, 1990-95; Evolutionary biologist and the Charles Simonyi Professor
For The Understanding Of Science at Oxford University; Elected as a Fellow
of the Royal Society in May, 2001.

Essays
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Books
In The Selfish
Gene, Richard Dawkins "gently and expertly debunks
some of the favorite illusions of social biology about altruism," writes
Peter Medawar in the Spectator. The critic also remarks that the
work is "a most skillful reformulation of the central problems of social
biology in terms of the genetical theory of natural selection." "Building
on a beautifully chosen set of analogies," describes Douglas R. Hofstadter
in the Washington Post Book World, ". . . Richard Dawkins shows
how, in the end, spectacularly complex organizations can have the
properties we attribute to ourselves, all as a consequence of aimless
chemical reactions. This is one of the coldest, most inhuman and
disorienting views of human beings I have ever heard," continues
Hofstadter, "and yet I love it! It is so deep an insight, to bridge the
gap between the lifeless and the living, the chemical and the biological,
the random and the teleological, the physical and the spiritual." New
York Times critic Christopher Lehmann-Haupt finds Richard Dawkins's
writing more than adequate to his task: "It is not the theory of The
Selfish Gene that is so arresting as the marvelous lucidity with which
Mr. Richard Dawkins applies it to various behavior mechanisms that have
hitherto been misunderstood." Pfeiffer also admits that Richard Dawkins
"demonstrates a rare and welcome ability to make formidably technical
findings come alive." A New Yorker reviewer expresses a similar
opinion: "What makes [The Selfish Gene] accessible is the
brilliance and wit of Mr. Richard Dawkins' style. It is a splendid example
of how difficult scientific ideas can be explained by someone who
understands them and is willing to take the trouble." In 1989 Richard
Dawkins produced a second edition of The Selfish Gene, which
included extensive new endnotes as well as two new
chapters.

¤

Of his second book,
The Extended
Phenotype: The Gene as the Unit of
Selection, Richard Dawkins tells CA:
"I suppose most authors have one piece of work of which they would say `It
doesn't matter if you never read anything else of mine, please at least
read this.' For me, it is The Extended Phenotype. In
particular, the last four chapters constitute the best candidate for the
title `innovative' that I have to offer. The rest of the book does some
necessary sorting out on the way."

¤

Richard Dawkins once again
investigates aspects of Darwinian theory in The Blind
Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of
Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design. Lee Dembart of the Los Angeles Times calls the work
"a clear, logical, rational book that is the antidote to silliness. . . .
[The book] cuts through the nonsense about the origin and development of
life and leaves it for dead," continues Dembart. "He demonstrates beyond a
shadow of a doubt that evolution is the only possible explanation for the
world we see around us." In this work, Richard Dawkins refutes the
argument that the complexity of life cannot be random, thus implying a
designer or creator. The author uses Charles Darwin's idea of small
mutational variation to "demonstrate that it (and it alone) is competent
to explain the enormous diversity of living things in all their extremes
of complexity and specialization," writes David Jones in the London
Times. Like the author's previous work, Jones finds that The
Blind Watchmaker "is brilliant exposition, tightly argued but kept
readable by plentiful recourse to analogies and examples. What Richard
Dawkins does successfully is very good: The Blind Watchmaker is as
clear, as enthralling, as convincing an account of neo-Darwinian theory as
I have read. . . . His opposition to dogmatic vivisectionists and his
appreciation of the marvelous diversity and ingenuity of the world are
very welcome." Dembart summarizes his own impression of the work: "The
book is beautifully and superbly written. It is completely understandable,
but it has the cadence of impassioned speech. Every page rings of truth,"
continues the critic. "It is one of the best science books--one of the
best any books--I have ever read." Explaining the origin of this "passion"
for truth, Richard Dawkins remarked that his "early interest in evolution
was really as a sort of alternative to religion, and an explanation for
the way things are," the author remarked to Sarah Duncan in the London
Times. While "other biologists start out as bird watchers or bug
hunters," said Richard Dawkins, "I started with a curiosity about why
things exist."

¤

"Climbing Mount Improbable is another attempt to explain Darwinian evolution. It
focuses on how natural selection generates complex organs, including one
organ in particular, the eye. Charles Darwin admitted he was stumped to
explain its evolution. However, what Darwin couldn't do, Mr. Richard
Dawkins can. Chapter 5 explains, step by step, the evolution of organs of
vision. It is a masterpiece. Like much of this book, this chapter was
screened by colleagues who had the expertise to insure accuracy, and whose
help Mr. Richard Dawkins properly acknowledges. A skilled writer and
spellbinding storyteller, he summarizes current research to explain how
structures like spider webs, organs of flight and sight, snail shells or
the complex mutualism of fig trees and tiny wasps that act as pollinators
could evolve." writes  The New York Times. Audubon states
"In his tightly argued book Richard Dawkins showed how, given vast
amounts of time, living complexity arose out of primeval simplicity. Each
successive change in the gradual evolutionary process was simple enough,
relative to its predecessor, to have arisen by chance," he wrote. "But the
whole sequence of cumulative steps constitutes anything but a chance
process, when you consider the complexity of the final end-product
relative to the original starting point. The cumulative process is
directed by nonrandom survival. Nonrandom survival or, in the
catch-phrase, survival of the fittest is at the heart of natural
selection."

¤

"Richard Dawkins
is above all a masterly expositor, a writer who understands the issues so
clearly that he forces his readers to understand them too. River Out of Eden displays these virtues to the full, and it maintains his
high standards of clarity and excitement. The "river" of the title is the
river of DNA that flows from early life forms to their present-day
descendants. This is a powerful metaphor, and Mr. Richard Dawkins puts it
to a number of good uses." reviews  Natural Selections. The Los
Angeles Times states "Richard Dawkins' latest book, "River Out
of Eden," is a beautifully crafted, superbly written exposition and
explanation of this view. He presents the counter-arguments, and one by
one, he dismantles them."  New Scientist says "Richard
Dawkins' success is well deserved; he writes with great fluidity and
clarity about the big evolutionary issues and has not shirked the
arguments of his adversaries. His forthright advocacy of the Darwinian
view exposes the shallow thinking of its many critics. The simple logic of
selection on self-replicating entities remains an immensely powerful
explanation. Richard Dawkins takes this evolutionary message beyond its
usual biological bounds. Darwinism has too often been portrayed as a grim
and pessimistic creed. River Out of Eden shows there is little
reason for this."

¤

"The first thing
to be said about Richard Dawkins's Unweaving the Rainbow, which argues that scientific fact is both intellectually
and esthetically more pleasing than pseudoscientific fantasy, is that he
is to be congratulated for his courage in attempting it." -
Science. The New York Times states that in Unweaving the
Rainbow, Richard Dawkins "emerges as one of the most incisive science
writers alive." The Skeptical Inquirer continues "Richard Dawkins
is one of the treasured few scientists today writing in depth about
science and scientific processes for intelligent general readers whose
works are simultaneously scientifically rich and provocative, accessible
(although there is never a sense of being watered down), and successful.
He brings a discerning critical intelligence and an impassioned concern in
the hope that we will find science worthy of our own awe. At the same time
by learning about our own genetic and environmental heritage and the
workings of our brains we can learn how to be aware of our own capacities
for self-delusion."

¤

"The Devil's Chaplain
is a collection of essays that span 25 years of writing on evolution,
education, and science versus nonscience. The book is divided into seven
sections containing a mixture of pieces of varying lengths covering
several themes-- including Darwinism, morality, education, justice,
history of science and, of course, religion." The New York Times
writes "Dawkins is creative, articulate, and above all, emotional." Here,
Richard Dawkins is at his best, peerless as an expositor of the wonders of
science, with a defense of science and reason and a contempt for mysticism
of any kind. This shines through in many, if not most, of the
essays.". . .

¤

"In The Ancestors Tale, the renowned
biologist and thinker Richard Dawkins presents his most expansive work
yet: a comprehensive look at evolution, ranging from the latest
developments in the field to his own provocative views. Loosely based on
the form of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Dawkins's Tale takes us modern
humans back through four billion years of life on our planet. The
Ancestor's Tale is at once a far-reaching survey of the latest, best
thinking on biology and a fascinating history of life on Earth. Here
Dawkins shows us how remarkable we are, how astonishing our history, and
how intimate our relationship with the rest of the living
world."

¤

"In The God Delusion,  Richard Dawkins, the celebrated evolutionary biologist,
Oxford Professor, and author (The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, A
Devil's Chaplain, The Ancestor's Tale), gives us a carefully-reasoned yet
entertaining treatise on atheism that is equally eloquent and provocative.
His basic argument is that the collective irrational belief in "The God
Hypothesis" is not only wrong ("intellectual high treason"), but
pernicious in its resulting intolerance, oppression, bigotry, arrogance,
child abuse, homophobia, abortion-clinic bombings, cruelties to women,
war, suicide bombers, and educational systems that teach ignorance when it
comes to math and science. Sure to provoke his adversaries, Dawkins not
only portrays the "psychotic" God of the Old Testament as "arguably the
most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a
petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty
ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal,
genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic,
capriciously malevolent bully" (p. 31), but also challenges, quite
convincingly, every major argument for God's existence, and shows that the
Founding Fathers considered religion to be a threat to democracy. Thomas
Jefferson, for instance, claimed "Christianity is the most perverted
system that ever shone on man" (p. 43). Benjamin Franklin said
"Lighthouses are more useful than churches" (p. 43). A 1796 treaty signed
by John Adams declares, "the Government of the United States of America is
not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion" (p. 40). Adams also
said, "this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no
religion in it" (p. 43). Even conservative icon, Barry Goldwater,
threatened to fight fundamentalists "every step of the way if they try to
dictate their moral convictions to all Americans" (p. 39)."

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