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Line 53: Dawkins has been awarded academic and writing awards, and he makes television, radio, and Internet appearances, predominantly discussing his books, atheism, and his ideas and opinions as a [[public intellectual]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The New Celebrity Scientists: Out of the Lab and into the Limelight |last=Fahy |first=Declan |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |year=2015 |isbn= |location= |pages=}}</ref> === Early life === Clinton Richard Dawkins was born in [[Nairobi]], then in [[British Kenya]], on 26 March 1941.<ref name="encycdotcom">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3449200042/dawkins-richard-1941.html |title=Dawkins, Richard 1941– – Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com |publisher=[[Cengage Learning]] |accessdate=16 May 2014}}</ref> Dawkins later dropped Clinton from his name by [[deed poll]].<ref name="deed poll"/> He is the son of Jean Mary Vyvyan (''née'' Ladner; 1916–2019)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dawkins |first1=Richard |title=My mother is 100 today. She & my late father gave me an idyllic childhood. Her writings on that time are quoted in An Appetite for Wonder |url=https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/802104552195506178 |website=Twitter |accessdate=26 November 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Dawkins |first1=Richard |title=My beloved mother died today, a month short of her 103rd birthday. As a young wartime bride she was brave and adventurous. Her epic journey up Africa, illegally accompanying my father, is recounted in passages from her diary, reproduced in An Appetite for Wonder. Rest in Peace. |url=https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1183908617541562369 |website=Twitter |accessdate=15 October 2019}}</ref> and Clinton John Dawkins (1915–2010), an agricultural civil servant in the British [[Colonial Service]] in [[Nyasaland]] (present-day Malawi), of an Oxfordshire [[landed gentry]] family.<ref name="encycdotcom" /><ref>Burke's Landed Gentry 17th edition, ed. L. G. Pine, 1952, 'Dawkins of Over Norton' pedigree</ref><ref name="father's obit"/> His father was called up into the [[King's African Rifles]] during [[World War II]]<ref>{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |title=The Ancestor's Tale |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tub-X6wydKgC |date=October 2004 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-618-00583-3 |page=317}}</ref><ref name="Brief Scientific Autobiography">{{cite web |url=http://richarddawkins.net/articles/4757-brief-scientific-autobiography |title=Brief Scientific Autobiography |accessdate=17 July 2010 |publisher=Richard Dawkins Foundation |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100621114947/http://richarddawkins.net/articles/4757-brief-scientific-autobiography |archivedate=21 June 2010}}</ref> and returned to England in 1949, when Dawkins was eight. His father had inherited a country estate, [[Over Norton Park]] in [[Oxfordshire]], which he farmed commercially.<ref name="father's obit">{{Cite news |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |title=Lives Remembered: John Dawkins |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |date=11 December 2010 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lives-remembered-john-dawkins-2157459.html |accessdate=12 December 2010 |location=London}}</ref> He has a younger sister, Sarah.<ref name="Darwin's child" /> Dawkins considers himself [[English people|English]] Both his parents were interested in [[natural science]]s, and they answered Dawkins's questions in scientific terms.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/1595744.stm |title=Richard Dawkins: The foibles of faith |accessdate=13 March 2008 |date=12 October 2001 |work=BBC News}}</ref> Dawkins describes his childhood as "a normal [[Anglican]] upbringing".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pollard |first=Nick |title=High Profile |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=17rzvh_Ve0IC |volume=18 |date=April 1995 |page=15 |issn=0309-3492 |issue=3 |journal=[[Third Way Magazine|Third Way]]}}</ref> He embraced [[Christianity]] until halfway through his teenage years, at which point he concluded that the [[Extended evolutionary synthesis|theory of evolution]] alone was a better explanation for life's complexity, and ceased believing in a god.<ref name="Darwin's child">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/feb/10/religion.scienceandnature |last=Hattenstone |first=Simon |title=Darwin's child |accessdate=22 April 2008 |date=10 February 2003 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref> Dawkins states: "The main residual reason why I was religious was from being so impressed with the complexity of life and feeling that it had to have a designer, and I think it was when I realised that Darwinism was a far superior explanation that pulled the rug out from under the argument of design. And that left me with nothing."<ref name="Darwin's child" /> === Education === Line 127: Dawkins sees education and [[consciousness raising|consciousness-raising]] as the primary tools in opposing what he considers to be religious dogma and indoctrination.<ref name="belief interview"/><ref name="education">{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Alexandra |url=http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1958138,00.html |title=Dawkins campaigns to keep God out of classroom |accessdate=15 January 2007 |date=27 November 2006 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref><ref name="bright">{{cite news |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,981412,00.html |title=The future looks bright |accessdate=13 March 2008 |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |date=21 June 2003 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref> These tools include the fight against certain stereotypes, and he has adopted the term ''[[brights movement|bright]]'' as a way of associating positive public connotations with those who possess a [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalistic]] worldview.<ref name="bright"/> He has given support to the idea of a free-thinking school,<ref name="Powell">{{cite news |last=Powell |first=Michael |title=A Knack for Bashing Orthodoxy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/science/20dawkins.html |date=19 September 2011 |work=The New York Times |page=4 |accessdate=20 September 2011}}</ref> which would not "indoctrinate children" but would instead teach children to ask for evidence and be skeptical, critical, and open-minded. Such a school, says Dawkins, should "teach comparative religion, and teach it properly without any bias towards particular religions, and including historically important but dead religions, such as those of ancient Greece and the Norse gods, if only because these, like the Abrahamic scriptures, are important for understanding English literature and European history.<ref name="telegraph1">{{cite news |last=Beckford |first=Martin |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7849563/Richard-Dawkins-interested-in-setting-up-atheist-free-school.html |title=Richard Dawkins interested in setting up 'atheist free school' |newspaper=Telegraph |date=24 June 2010 |accessdate=29 July 2010 |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/gove-welcomes-atheist-schools-2037990.html |title=Gove welcomes atheist schools – Education News, Education |newspaper=The Independent |date=29 July 2010 |accessdate=29 July 2010 |location=London |first=Richard |last=Garner}}</ref> Inspired by the consciousness-raising successes of [[Feminism|feminists]] in arousing widespread embarrassment at the routine use of "he" instead of "she", Dawkins similarly suggests that phrases such as "Catholic child" and "Muslim child" should be considered as socially absurd as, for instance, "Marxist child", as he believes that children should not be classified based on the ideological or religious beliefs of their parents.<ref name="bright" /> ==== Criticism of creationism ==== Line 160 ⟶ 157: Dawkins identifies as a feminist.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/280427716010983424 |title=Richard Dawkins |date=16 December 2012 |accessdate=3 May 2015 |website=Twitter |last=Dawkins |first=Richard}}</ref> Dawkins has said that feminism is "enormously important" and "a political movement that deserves to be supported".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.salon.com/2014/12/08/richard_dawkins_is_there_a_mens_rights_movement/ |title=Richard Dawkins: "Is There a Men's Rights Movement?" |work=[[Salon (website)|Salon]] |last=Kutner |first=Jenny |date=8 December 2014 |accessdate=1 February 2015}}</ref> evidence.{{sfn|Dawkins|2006}}<ref>{{cite web|title=When Religion Steps on Science's Turf|url=http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/dawkins_18_2.html|last=Dawkins|first=Richard|year=2006|work=Free Inquiry|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080419125549/http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/dawkins_18_2.html|archivedate=19 April 2008|accessdate=3 April 2008}}</ref><ref name="rdf-fundamentalist">{{cite web|title=How dare you call me a fundamentalist|url=http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/1071-how-dare-you-call-me-a-fundamentalist|last=Dawkins|first=Richard|publisher=Richard Dawkins Foundation|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231022508/http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/1071-how-dare-you-call-me-a-fundamentalist|archivedate=31 December 2012|accessdate=28 December 2012}}</ref> === Other fields === [[File:Jayce Lewis & Prof Richard Dawkins 2018.jpg|right|thumb|Jayce Lewis alongside Richard Dawkins at the Home of Dawkins working together on Jayce's album Million (Part 2), 2018]] In his role as professor for public understanding of science, Dawkins has been a critic of [[pseudoscience]] and [[alternative medicine]]. His 1998 book ''[[Unweaving the Rainbow]]'' considers [[John Keats]]'s accusation that by explaining the [[rainbow]], [[Isaac Newton]] diminished its beauty; Dawkins argues for the opposite conclusion. He suggests that deep space, the billions of years of life's evolution, and the microscopic workings of biology and heredity contain more beauty and wonder than do "myths" and "pseudoscience".<ref>{{cite book Continuing a long-standing partnership with [[Channel 4]], Dawkins participated in a five-part television series, ''[[Genius of Britain]]'', along with fellow scientists [[Stephen Hawking]], [[James Dyson]], [[Paul Nurse]], and [[Jim Al-Khalili]]. The series was first broadcast in June 2010, and focuses on major, British, scientific achievements throughout history.<ref>{{cite web|title=C4 lines up Genius science series|url=http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2009/01/dawkins_to_front_c4_science_series.html In 2014 he joined the global awareness movement [[Asteroid Day]] as a "100x Signatory".<ref name="Telegrapharticle">{{cite news|last=Knapton|first=Sarah|date=4 December 2014|title=Asteroids could wipe out humanity, warn Richard Dawkins and Brian Cox|newspaper=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11272393/Asteroids-could-wipe-out-humanity-warn-Richard-Dawkins-and-Brian-Cox.html Dawkins worked alongside Welsh Musician [[Jayce Lewis]] contributing a recorded spoken word for the track "Exhale" from his 1998 book ''[[Unweaving the Rainbow]]'' to the Welshman's third full-length album ''Million''. == Criticism == While is contribution to Science and rationalism cannot be doubted, Dawkins has attracted much criticism from fellow academics and philosophers. === Criticism by scientists === A study of British Scientists by [[Rice University]] brought about heavy criticism of Dawkins. In an in-depth study of 137 British scientists 48 referenced Dawkins despite no questions being asked about him, 80% said they thought that Dawkins misrepresents science and scientists in his books and public speeches. Another common criticism was that Dawkins was too strong in his criticism of religion, one non religious biology professor described him as a “fundamental atheist' another said he was on a "crusade". However it should be noted 20% did mention him with positive views, owing to him challenging creationists and those who adhere to intelligent design. Paul Fidalgo, of the [[Center for Inquiry|centre for inquiry]], also challenged the saying that Dawkins has inspired millions and due to the size pool of the study this was understandable. <ref>{{Cite web|title=British scientists really, really dislike Richard Dawkins, new study discover|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/richard-dawkins-atheism-criticism-atheist-study-rice-university-science-scientists-a7389396.html|date=2016-10-31|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=2020-05-27}}</ref> In 2014 biologist and Harvard University professor, E.O Wilson, criticised Dawkins on [[Newsnight]] calling him a Journalist and not a scientist.<ref>{{Cite web|title=|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-richard-dawkins-is-no-scientist-the-survival-of-the-least-selfish-and-what-ants-can-tell-us-9849956.html|last=|first=|date=|website=www.google.com|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-05-28}}</ref>His comments are below: <blockquote>“There is no dispute between me and Richard Dawkins and there never has been, because he’s a journalist, and journalists are people that report what the scientists have found and the arguments I’ve had have actually been with scientists doing research,” </blockquote>He also went on to answer questions about his opinions on Dawkins' book the selfish gene, stating: <blockquote>“I have abandoned it and I think most serious scientists working on it have abandoned it. Some defenders may be out there, but they have been relatively or almost totally silenced since our major paper came out.”</blockquote>The paper he referred to was a 2010 study published in [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] entitled [https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09205 The evolution of eusociality]. Dawkins attributed Wilson's comments to a disagreement over [[kin selection]], later tweeting “I greatly admire EO Wilson & his huge contributions to entomology, ecology, biogeography, conservation, etc. He’s just wrong on kin selection.” He later elaborated referencing a critical [[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect Magazine]] review of Wilson’s book [[The Social Conquest of Earth]]. <ref>{{Cite news|last=Johnston|first=Chris|date=2014-11-07|title=Biological warfare flares up again between EO Wilson and Richard Dawkins|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/07/richard-dawkins-labelled-journalist-by-eo-wilson|access-date=2020-05-27|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize]]-winning [[theoretical physicist]] [[Peter Higgs]] and [[Astrophysicists|astrophysicist]] [[Martin Rees]] has equated Dawkins with the religious fundamentalists he criticises saying he has adopted "[[fundamentalist]]" view of non-atheists. Other scientists have accused him of promoting [[Scientism]], such as [[Francis Collins|Dr Francis Collins]] the head of the [[National Institutes of Health|National Institute of Health]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=New Templeton Prize winner criticises the 'scientism' of Dawkins|url=https://catholicherald.co.uk/new-templeton-prize-winner-criticises-dawkins-scientism/|last=Reporter|first=Staff|date=2020-05-21|website=Catholic Herald|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-05-27}}</ref> === Criticism by theologians and philosophers === Atheist philosophers such as [[Massimo Pigliucci]], [[Michael Ruse]] and [[John Gray (philosopher)|John Gray]] have criticised Dawkins. Their comments are below. Ruse has that Dawkins would fail introductory courses on the study of philosophy or religion. He has also said that Dawkins and New Atheism does science a "grave disservice" and does a "disservice to scholarship" at more general level. Ruse then stated that The God Delusion made him 'ashamed to be an atheist'.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Doherty|first=Tim|title=The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy of Religion|publisher=Routledge|year=2009|isbn=9781844658312|location=New York|pages=52–53}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Ruse on belief net|url=http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/scienceandthesacred/2009/08/why-i-think-the-new-atheists-are-a-bloody-disaster.html|last=|first=|date=|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> Pigliucci has accused Dawkins and the leaders of the new atheism movement as adhering to scientism also saying, "I would actually go so far as to charge many of the leaders of the New Atheism movement (and, by implication, a good number of their followers) with anti-intellectualism, one mark of which is a lack of respect for the proper significance, value, and methods of another field of intellectual endeavor."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pigliucci|first=Massimo|title=New Atheism and the Scientistic Turn in the Atheism Movement|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=151–152}}</ref> Gray has denounced Dawkins as an "anti-religious missionary", whose assertions are "in no sense novel or original," suggesting that "transfixed in wonderment at the workings of his own mind, Dawkins misses much that is of importance in human beings." Gray has also criticised Dawkins's perceived allegiance to Darwin, stating that if "science, for Darwin, was a method of inquiry that enabled him to edge tentatively and humbly toward the truth, for Dawkins, science is an unquestioned view of the world." The Conservative philosopher Rodger Scruton accused Dawkins of 'recycling' evolution as a theory for everything such as "what the human being is, what human communities are, what our problems are and then how they’re not really our problems, but the problems of our genes".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Scruton|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/15/roger-scruton-notes-on-nonsense-richard-dawkins-original-sin-islamism-and-more|last=|first=|date=|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> Scruton has also that Dawkins [[cherry picking|cherry-picks]] his data, and ignores the benefits of religion.<ref name="spectator.co.uk" /> [[Alister McGrath]], the Anglican Priest and Theologian called him "embarrassingly ignorant of Christian theology". His book, ''[[The Dawkins Delusion?]]'' – a response to Dawkins's The God Delusion – was published by [[SPCK]] in February 2007. The author and writer Rupert Short blames Dawkins and New atheists for promoting ignorance, stating that they have peddled an idea that all people of faith share a Creationist view of the world. Writing in the Spectator he states:<blockquote>Call out superstition by all means. But don’t display culpable ignorance by likening all manifestations of faith across the world to belief in the tooth fairy. Dawkins’s new book Outgrowing God is no less crude than his earlier diatribe The God Delusion. Once more, he’s lobbed a stone in a vain bid to hit the clouds.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/richard-dawkins-and-the-ignorance-of-new-atheism-|website=www.spectator.co.uk|access-date=2020-05-28}}</ref></blockquote>In response to some of his critics, Dawkins maintains that theologians are no better than scientists in addressing deep [[cosmological]] questions and that he is not a fundamentalist, as he is willing to change his mind in the face of new evidence. == Awards and recognition == Line 195 ⟶ 215: On 6 February 2016, Dawkins suffered a minor hemorrhagic [[stroke]] while at home.<ref name="stroke">{{cite news |first=Adam |last=Dudding |title=Richard Dawkins suffers stroke, cancels New Zealand appearance |date=12 February 2016 |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/76837596/richard-dawkins-suffers-stroke-cancels-new-zealand-appearance |newspaper=Fairfax New Zealand |accessdate=12 February 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/feb/12/richard-dawkins-has-stroke-on-eve-of-australia-and-new-zealand-tour |title=Richard Dawkins stroke forces delay of Australia and New Zealand tour |first=Calla |last=Wahlquist |newspaper=The Guardian |date=11 February 2016 |accessdate=11 February 2016 |location=London}}</ref> Dawkins reported later that same year that he had almost completely recovered.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36363676 |title=Professor Dawkins on recovering from a mild stroke |work=Radio 4 Today |date=24 May 2016 |accessdate=10 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://richarddawkins.net/2016/04/an-april-4th-update-from-richard/ |title=An April 4th Update from Richard |date=4 April 2016 |accessdate=5 April 2016 |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |publisher=Richard Dawkins Foundation}} [https://soundcloud.com/user-733970241 Audio file]</ref> Dawkins lives in [[Oxford]], England.<ref name="strident2">{{cite news|last=Anthony|first=Andrew|date=15 September 2013|title=Richard Dawkins: 'I don't think I am strident or aggressive'|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/15/richard-dawkins-interview-appetite-wonder|accessdate=21 September 2014}}</ref> == Media == | |||
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