As a prominent English ethologist, Richard Dawkins did a lot to promote evolutionary doctrine. Biologists from all over the world study from his books. Dawkins is also known as a popularizer of serious science and an ardent critic of religious views. God did not create people, Richard believes, but a blind and unforgiving force called the evolutionary process.
From the biography of R. Dawkins
The future eminent biologist was born on March 26, 1941 in Nairobi, Kenya. Dawkins' father served in the Department of Agriculture of the British Colonial Administration. Richard has a sister, she is younger in age. During the Second World War, the boy's father was drafted into the army, where he was a shooter.
In 1949, the family returned to England, where the elder Dawkins inherited a farm. The boy's parents were seriously interested in natural and exact sciences, they encouraged the studies of their son, who strove to comprehend biology.
By the age of 9, Richard already seriously doubted the existence of the Creator, although formally he was a Christian. Gradually, the young man came to the conclusion: the most convincing explanation of the complex structure of the world and life is the theory of evolutionary changes. Since then, there has been no place for God in Dawkins' worldview.
Dawkins was educated at Oxford College. His mentor in the field of zoology was N. Tinbergen, a specialist in animal behavior and also a Nobel laureate. In 1962, Richard graduated from an educational institution, and 4 years later became a doctor of philosophy.
Education allowed Dawkins to take up a teaching post at the University of California. He took an active part in actions against the bloody war in Vietnam. Richard left his professorship only in 2008.
The scientist was married three times. They parted with their first wife. The second marriage also broke up. The second wife subsequently died after a serious illness. In this marriage, Dawkins had a daughter. In 1992, Richard tied his fate with Lalla Ward.
Advances in evolutionary biology and atheism
Dawkins is an adherent of genocentric views on evolutionary processes. The main views of the scientist are reflected in the work "The Selfish Gene", which made Dawkins famous. As a specialist in ethology, that is, in the science of animal behavior, Dawkins preaches the idea that genes are a key factor in the development of life. The scientist is skeptical about other selection mechanisms.
Dawkins actively criticizes the theory of creationism. The universe, and then mankind, occurred in the most natural way, they were not created by the Lord at the beginning of time. In his writings, Dawkins exposes the inventions of creationists, showing their absurdity and inconsistency.
For his active work in the field of atheism, Dawkins is often called "the main British atheist." The biologist is convinced that science and religion are incompatible. The scientist's holistic and consistent position is respected even by his ideological opponents.
Interesting fact: the circulation of Dawkins' book, which he named "God as an Illusion", surpassed his previous works in size. Researchers of the phenomenon of religion suggest that this is one of the undoubted evidence of a change in the cultural paradigm in a bourgeois society, the religious foundations of which are gradually shaking.
