The 65 best phrases of Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is a controversial writer, scientist, ethologist, biologist and British popularizer known for his high level of skepticism and his deep criticism of religion, especially of the creationist current.
This deeply rationalist author is one of the most recognized defenders of evolutionary theory and he has been considered one of the most influential intellectuals of recent times. He is known for his studies on evolution and genetics, stating that the gene is the main evolutionary unit of selection, as well as for his critical view of pseudosciences and beliefs religious.
Throughout this article you can find a series of 65 Quotes by Richard Dawkins that can allow us to see the thought of him.
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Sixty-five famous quotes by Richard Dawkins
Below you will find a selection of phrases by this author that allow you to visualize his position on various topics: biology, life, evolution, religion, etc.
1. Natural selection will not eliminate the ignorance of future generations
For Dawkins, natural selection is one of the main forces that guide evolution, but as long as the human being does not make an effort to overcome ignorance, it will not be overcome.
2. Man is a survival machine, an automated vehicle blindly programmed in order to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.
In this sentence the author establishes that the human being is subject to the function of transmitting genes, being practically at their service.
3. Could it be that some smart computers some day ago speculate on their own lost origins? Will any of them fall into the heretical truth that they come from a previous way of life, rooted in the organic chemistry of carbon, rather than on the silicon-based electronic principles of their own bodies?
Dawkins establishes an analogy between what could happen in a hypothetical future with beings synthetics created by us and our ability to understand the evolutionary process of our own species.
4. Isn't it sad to go to the grave without wondering why you were born? Who, at such a thought, would not have jumped out of bed, eager to begin anew to discover the world and rejoice to be a part of it?
It expresses the belief in the need for explore our origins based on science.
5. Faith is the great sneakiness, the great excuse to avoid the need to think and evaluate differences. Faith is believing despite (or even perhaps due to) lack of evidence
Dawkins believes that religious beliefs are based on an attempt to explain reality without the need to explore viable explanations.
6. The essence of life is statistical improbability on a colossal scale
In this sentence the author indicates the factor of chance in the generation of life and the immense difficulty for it to have arisen.
7. The universe is governed by the law of survival of the stable. The first form of natural selection was the selection of stable forms and rejection of unstable ones.
For the author, the stable is that which remains and expands, while the unstable tends to disappear.
8. Delayed reciprocal altruism (I do something for you and then you do something for me) can evolve in those species capable of recognizing and remembering each member as an individual.
Dawkins considers that altruism occurs in those species with cognitive capacities that allow the recognition and memory of what has been done, since otherwise the other could not remember who has done something for someone.
9. Almost all cultures have developed their own creation myths, and the Genesis story is simply that which was adopted by a particular tribe of Middle Eastern shepherds.
The author establishes that the Judeo-Christian creation myth is one of the many existing myths of the same type, being neither the only nor the most correct.
10. There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There's no proof that this is the case, but you can't prove that there isn't any either, so… Should we be agnostic about fairies?
Despite his criticism of religion, Dawkins does not consider himself an atheist but an agnostic. He considers that although he does not believe it does not imply that he may be wrong.
11. We will try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are all born selfish
For the author being people are predominantly selfish from birth. Values such as generosity must be instilled throughout education if we want altruistic and prosocial behaviors to spread.
12. Personally I prefer to look to the future where a computer program wins the world chess title. Humanity needs a lesson in humility
The human being has established himself throughout history as a proud creature who has considered himself the top of the evolutionary chain. Having a little more humility would allow us observe reality with greater perspective and in a more objective way.
13. We are all atheists regarding most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further
In this sentence the author indicates that throughout history the different beliefs have been superimposing and replacing each other. At present we do not believe in the same gods, for example, as the Romans or the Celts. The same could be thought of a future with respect to current beliefs.
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14. One of the creationist's favorite questions is: what is the utility of half an eye? This is really a light question, easy to answer. Half an eye is simply a one percent better than 49 percent of an eye
In this sentence Dawkins he criticizes creationism and its conceptions while he indicates that any attempt to improve in the attempt to explain the world is an advantage over previous attempts.
15. The universe we observe has precisely the properties that we should expect if it existed, in the beginning of things, no designer, no purpose, no evil or good, nothing, just blind and relentless indifference
The author considers that there is neither a creator nor a directed creation, but rather that the properties of the universe suggest simple chance.
16. In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic reproduction, some will suffer damage and others will not, and it is impossible to find meaning or justice.
The author indicates in this sentence that the evolution of life does not exist and the universe itself is not directed to an end or to the obtaining a specific organism but rather it is haphazard, and as such to ascribe moral adjectives or a meaning to it is not possible..
17. Science is the poetry of reality
Dawkins believes that through science it is possible to glimpse and know reality.
18. I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with the lack of understanding of the world
In this sentence the author tells us that he considers that religion prevents knowing and understanding the world, being in his opinion incompatible with science.
19. Blind faith can justify anything. If a man believes in a different god, or even if he uses a different ritual to worship the same god, blind faith may decree that he must be killed either on a cross, impaled, impaled by the sword of a crusader, shot in a Beirut street or dynamited in a bar in Belfast.
This phrase is a critique of religious fanaticism that can cause serious conflicts between people or even between peoples and ways of understanding the same reality.
- Related article: "Types of religion (and their differences in beliefs and ideas)"
20. Genes lacks foresight. They don't plan ahead. Genes just exist, some with a better chance of survival than others, and that's what it all comes down to
In this sentence the author tells us again that there is no prior planning that leads to a specific situation. Things just happen and develop just like genes.
21. It has become almost a cliche comment, that no one today boasts of being ignorant in literature, but it is socially acceptable to brag about being ignorant of science and proudly claiming to be incompetent in math
Dawkins criticizes the social tendency to ignore science and that this is well seen by the population.
22. Evolution has been observed. It's just that it hasn't been observed while it was happening
Evolution is a certainty that can be observed, although it is a prolonged process over time that is not perceptible while it is occurring but from its results.
23. There is no alternative medicine. There is only medicine that works and medicine that does not work
Richard Dawkins is critical of homeopathy and alternative medicine unless it proves to be effective. He views these disciplines as harmful as they give false hope and can lead to credible treatment being ignored.
24. Reason built the modern world. It is a precious thing, but also fragile, which can be corrupted by seemingly harmless irrationality.
Dawkins is a deeply rationalistic person and believes that reason, a fundamental element for the development and understanding of the world, can be influenced by superstition with great ease.
25. The theory of evolution, through cumulative natural selection, is the only theory that we know that in principle is capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity.
The author reflects the importance of the theory of evolution as an explanation of the existence of current organisms.
26. Evolution should be one of the first things learned in school... and what do they give children instead? Sacred hearts and incense. Shallow and empty religion
The author criticizes the American formative system and the popularity of creationism in the teaching of many schools, in addition to emphasizing the lack of training in aspects such as evolution.
27. In childhood our credulity is of great use to us. It helps us fill our heads, with extraordinary speed, with the wisdom of our parents and ancestors. But if we do not grow and overcome that stage in the fullness of time, our nature... makes us an easy target for astrologers, mediums, gurus, evangelists and charlatans. We need to replace the automatic credulity of childhood with the constructive skepticism of adult science
Throughout the growth process we gradually acquire more cognitive capacity and critical thinking. Otherwise, we will readily accept any explanation offered to us.
28. To this day, the theory of evolution is as open to doubt as the theory that the Earth revolves around the sun.
The author indicates that the theory of evolution is sufficiently validated enough to consider it true despite the fact that other trends try to deny it.
- Related article: "The theory of biological evolution"
29. Many of us viewed religion as harmful nonsense. Beliefs may lack all kinds of supporting evidence but, we thought, if people need a support where to find comfort, where is the danger? September 11 changed all that
Dawkins believes that religion can be dangerous and can be used in an extremist way to justify acts of violence.
30. We need to favor verifiable evidence over personal observations. Or we will make ourselves vulnerable to being obscured by the truth.
For this author, science comes first. It is necessary to observe reality in an objective and falsifiable way without our opinions biasing our perception.
31. Anyway, let's be open minded, but not enough for our brains to slip away.
We have to be imaginative and accept the possibility that there are more interpretations of reality than our own, but not just anyone is going to be equally founded.
32. The history of science has been a long series of violent mental storms, successive generations faced with increasing levels of weirdness in the universe
Science has had a turbulent history in which a large number of theories and investigations have faced evolving in different directions and with different results, sometimes contradictory with those of other trends and theories.
33. You can go backwards as much as you want. I propose to go 185 million generations back; you will realize that your ancestor of 185 million generations was a fish
The author emphasizes the theory of evolution
34. In real life the selective criterion is always short term: simple survival or, more generally, successful reproduction
In this sentence Dawkins makes mention of what causes evolution, what allows natural selection to act: the ability to adapt, survive and reproduce our genes.
35. Most of the characteristics that are unusual or extraordinary in man can be summed up in one word: culture
Culture is one of the elements that are distinctive to us. For both good and bad, it has allowed the creation of different ways of seeing the world and participating in it.
36. Cultural transmission is analogous to genetic transmission in that, despite being basically conservative, it can give rise to a form of evolution
The author indicates that culture is a form of transmission similar to genetics, since it generates new perspectives and ways of being and acting.
37. From the gametes onwards, the male is more selfish because he invests less than the female in making them. The female is exploited from the start
In this phrase from "The egoistic gene" the author tells us about the presence of a greater egoism in the male than in the female.
38. If there is only one creator who made the tiger and the lamb, the cheetah and the gazelle. What is he playing at? Are you a sadist who enjoys watching bloody sports?
In this sentence Dawkins criticizes the belief in the existence of a God who directs life and directs it towards a purpose, pointing out the existence of controversial aspects such as the existence of cruelty.
39. Complex and statistically improbable things are by nature more difficult to explain than simple and statistically probable things
The author indicates in this sentence that what is statistically improbable will always be more difficult to explain than the simplest aspects of reality. An example of this is found in trying to explain life or existence.
40. We no longer have to resort to superstition when faced with deep problems: Is there a meaning to life? What are we searching for? What is man?
In ancient times we turned to superstition and mystical beliefs as an explanation for the most complex and profound questions. The author proposes that today this is no longer necessary, since science can offer new explanations based on evidence.
41. The problem is that God, in this sophisticated physical sense, bears no resemblance to the God of the Bible or of any other religion. If a physicist says that God is just another name for Planck's constant or that God is a superstring, we should take it as a quaint metaphorical way of saying that superstrings or the value of Planck's constant are a mystery deep. Obviously he has not the slightest connection with a being capable of forgiving sins, a being who may hear prayers, who cares if the Sabbath It starts at five or six in the afternoon, if you wear a veil or not, or if you see a little of the arm, and there is no connection with either being able to impose the death penalty on his own son to atone for all the sins of the world that were committed before and after he had born
The author indicates that the idea of God is a concept linked to mystery, being against the idea of a personal being that judges everything that exists.
42. Organisms have existed on Earth, never knowing why, for more than three billion years, before the truth was finally understood by one of them. By a man named Charles Darwin
The author indicates the importance of the theory of evolution as an element that allows to explain how they have been generated and developing current organisms, as well as the fact that evolution has continued to occur despite the fact that no one had observed.
43. As a scientist I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively perverts the scientific endeavor. It teaches us not to change our minds and not to want to know stimulating things that are available for knowledge. He subverts science and atrophies knowledge
Dawkins declares himself against fundamentalist religious doctrines by considering them closed and inflexible and not allowing the development of knowledge.
44. God exists, even if only in the form of a meme with a high potential for survival, or infectious power, in the environment provided by human culture.
The concept of meme is for this author analogous to that of gene, indicating the theoretical unit of cultural information as well as the gene is of the biological one. The idea of god is closely linked to culture, so that even if it is as such, its existence is true.
45. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be deadly dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people firm confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them the false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes the normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it instills enmity in other people labeled solely by a difference in inherited traditions. And dangerous because we have all acquired a strange respect that exclusively protects religion from normal criticism.
The author establishes that religion can be dangerous in the hands of extremists, in this sentence he criticizes the absence of criticism towards religion and the fact that it allows to form endogroups and outgroups and that he carried out shortly after September 11, 2001.
46. The God of the Old Testament is without a doubt the most disgusting character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, petty, unjust, a ruthless controller, a vengeful bloodthirsty ethnic cleaner, a misogynist, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniac, sadomasochistic, whimsical bully malicious
Dawkins criticizes the original conception, portrait and image of God in the Old Testament, in which he is perceived as a cruel and vindictive figure towards those who did not follow his precepts.
47. Just as genes spread through a gene pool by jumping from one body to another via sperm or eggs, so are memes spread in the stock of memes by jumping from one brain to another through a process that, considered in its broadest sense, can be called imitation
In this sentence a comparison between genetics and culture, the second of which is transmitted by imitating the ideas of others.
48. If a scientist hears or reads a good idea, he passes it on to his colleagues and students. He mentions it in his articles and presentations. If the idea becomes popular, it can be said that it has spread from brain to brain.
In this sentence the author indicates how ideas are transmitted and replicated, reaching more and more people.
49. When a woman is described in the course of a conversation, it is very likely that her sexual attractiveness or lack of it is emphasized in a special way. This is so whether the speaker is a man or a woman. When describing the man, the adjectives used most likely have nothing to do with sex
The culture and transmission of stereotypes causes the existence of differences in the conceptions between men and women, with females being much more sexualized.
50. Consciousness is the culmination of an evolutionary trend toward emancipation from the machine of survival, the daily management of her life and the ability to predict the future and act on consequence
Dawkins attaches great importance to the capacity for self-awareness as an element that helps us to be free and not based solely on surviving and reproducing but on establishing future plans and heading towards different objectives.
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51. Creationists are denying scientific evidence to support a Bronze Age myth
The author criticizes creationism and his denial of the theory of evolution.
52. The argument of this book is that we, and all other animals, are machines created by our genes.
The author talks about one of his works, in which he proposes that organisms are only a mechanism through which genes survive and try to replicate.
53. During the first half of geological history, our ancestors were bacteria. Most creatures today are still bacteria, and each of our trillions of cells is a colony of bacteria.
The author indicates the importance of taking into account that we are made up of millions of living cells, and that they are the simpler and older elements those that have been structured little by little to evolve towards other forms of lifetime.
54. If you look at the Milky Way with the eyes of Carl Sagan, we are filled with the feeling of something greater than ourselves. And so it is. But it's not supernatural
Dawkins indicates the absence of supernaturality in the universe. Everything that exists can be rationally explained.
55. I have had absolutely wonderful conversations with Anglican bishops, and I suspect that in a moment of frankness they might say that they do not believe in the Immaculate Conception. But for each of them there are four that would tell a child that he is going to rot in hell for doubting
The author indicates that many religious people and authorities have an open and flexible mindset, although it prevails in religious doctrines tend to rule strict dogmatism and condemn those who doubt or do not share the dogma.
56. What he cannot understand is why they cannot see the extraordinary beauty of the idea that life came out of nowhere. That is such an amazing, elegant and wonderful thing... why want to saturate it with something as complicated as a God?
The author expresses his consideration that life arises from chance, that we are the result of chance, has great beauty and simplicity, while the incorporation of a concept such as that of God supposes an element of complexity considerable.
57. I cannot be sure that God does not exist... on a scale of seven, where one means that I know that he exists and seven that I know that he does not exist would say that I am a six. That does not mean that I am absolutely sure, that I know absolutely, because I am not.
Despite not believing in the idea of a God, Dawkins indicates that he can be wrong and that he is not absolutely certain that he does not exist despite being practically convinced of it.
58. Males are high-stakes players facing high risk, and females are safe investors.
The author expresses the tendency of men to seek great benefits while assuming great risks for this, while women tend to prefer a lower income but with a higher level of safety.
59. The meme for a blind faith ensures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational investigation
For the author, blind faith spreads through preventing the advancement and dissemination of science and rational and replicable explanation.
60. The fact that life arose from almost nothing, barely 10 billion years after the universe arose from starting from literally nothing, it is such an amazing fact that he would be crazy if he tried to find words that would make him Justice
In this sentence the author indicates the great astonishment of considering that something like life could have appeared or even the universe itself.
61. At some point, an especially remarkable molecule was formed by accident. We will call it the replicator. It did not necessarily have to be the largest or most complex of all molecules, but it had the extraordinary property of being able to create copies of itself. This may seem like an accident with a very slim chance of happening. Indeed: it was extremely unlikely.
This phrase refers to the spontaneous and random emergence of the ability of molecules to replicate that would end by configuring large structures, and ultimately allowed the evolution towards increasingly complex life forms.
62. In our human calculations of what is probable and what is not, we are not used to calculating in hundreds of millions of years. If one filled out betting slips every week for 100 million years, it is very likely that one would win considerable sums several times over.
Probability and statistics tend to be skewed by our conception of time and our life expectancy. What may seem impossible to us is likely to happen at some point in history.
63. Religion is about to turn unproven beliefs into unshakable truths through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
The beliefs and traditions handed down over time can come to be considered totally certain despite the lack of evidence to confirm them, their enjoy institutional acceptance and Social.
64. No one is suggesting that children deliberately and consciously cheat on their parents because of their selfish genes. And I must repeat that when I say something like: "A creature should not miss any opportunity to cheat, lie, deceive, exploit ...", I use the word "should" in a special way. I am not defending this type of behavior as moral or desirable. I am simply stating that natural selection will tend to favor creatures that act in such a way and that, therefore, when we observe wild populations we can expect to see deception and selfishness within the families The phrase "the creature should cheat" means that genes that tend to make creatures cheat have an advantage in the gene pool.
These phrases indicate that regardless of the fact that deception may be morally reprehensible behavior, on a biological level it can be adaptive.
65. The next time someone tells you something that seems important, think to yourself: “Is this one of those things that people tend to believe based on evidence? Or is it one of those things that people believe out of tradition, authority, or revelation? And the next time someone tells you that a thing is true, try asking what evidence is there for it? And if they can't give you a good answer, I hope you think it over very hard before believing a single word of what they tell you.
Dawkins suggests making any claim scientifically sound and relying on the evidence before considering it credible.