Richard Dawkins

Clinton Richard Dawkins FRS FRSL born 26 March 1941 known as Richard Dawkins is a British ethologist evolutionary biologist and author He is an emeritus fellow of New College Oxford and was the University of Oxfords Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008 Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene which popularised the genecentered view of evolution and introduced the term meme In 1982 he introduced into evolutionary biology an influential concept presented in his book The Extended Phenotype that the phenotypic effects of a gene are not necessarily limited to an organisms body but can stretch far into the environment including the bodies of other organisms Dawkins is an atheist and humanist a Vice President of the British Humanist Association and supporter of the Brights movement He is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker he argued against the watchmaker analogy an argument for the existence of a supernatural creator based upon the complexity of living organisms Instead he described evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker He has since written several popular science books and makes regular television and radio appearances predominantly discussing these topics He has been referred to in the media as Darwins Rottweiler a reference to English biologist T H Huxley who was known as Darwins Bulldog for his advocacy of Charles Darwins evolutionary ideas In his 2006 book The God Delusion Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusiona fixed false belief As of January 2010 the Englishlanguage version had sold more than two million copies and had been translated into 31 languages making it his most popular book to date