Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist and ethologist, meaning he primarily studies animal behavior. Dawkins was born on March 26, 1941 in Nairobi, which was part of the colony of British Kenya at the time. As a child, Dawkins believed in God because he thought such a complex and diverse natural world must have been designed by a maker, a higher power or intelligence that created it. However, Dawkins became a fervent atheist as a teenager, after he decided that evolution provided a more convincing explanation for the biodiversity of the natural world than religion did. Dawkins studied zoology at Balliol College, Oxford, and completed his graduate education under Nobel-prize winning ethologist Nikolaas Tinbergen, a pioneer in animal behavior research. Dawkins’ graduate research centered on understanding how animals make choices. He became famous worldwide after publishing The Selfish Gene in 1976 and popularizing the gene-centered view of evolution, in which animal behaviors are seen as primarily being motivated by the goal of preserving and disseminating the animal’s genes. The book had a profound impact on scientific research in evolutionary biology, and prompted the establishment of several new fields of research. Dawkins subsequently published The Extended Phenotype in 1982, which argues that genes not only manipulate the bodies of organisms, but also the entire world around us. Dawkins has held prestigious academic positions for most of his career, primarily at the University of California at Berkeley and Oxford University. Dawkins is known for his approachable writing style, which favors clarity and non-technical language. Many of his books have become international bestsellers, and The Selfish Gene is consistently ranked among the top ten nonfiction works ever written. Dawkins has also become an outspoken critic of religion, in both academic and political contexts. His views on this issue culminated in his1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, and more strongly in his 2006 book The God Delusion.