Important figures
R

Important figure · Contemporary

Richard Dawkins

English evolutionary biologist and author; a prominent public critic of religion

Period
born 1941
Places
Oxford (England); born in Nairobi

Evolutionary biologist and popular author, known for The Selfish Gene (1976) and for The God Delusion (2006), an argument against belief in God.

Richard Dawkins was born on 26 March 1941 in Nairobi, then in British Kenya. He is an evolutionary biologist who has written widely for general readers.

He held the Charles Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford from 1995 to 2008. His earlier book The Selfish Gene was published in 1976.

In 2006 he published The God Delusion, and the same year founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Full timeline

  1. 26 March 1941

    Birth in Nairobi

  2. 1976

    The Selfish Gene

  3. 1995–2008

    Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, Oxford

  4. 2006

    The God Delusion

    Published the same year the Richard Dawkins Foundation was founded.

  5. 2006

    Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science founded

Contemporary positions and the arguments made for them. Each is presented as a position, not as settled fact.

Dawkins is an outspoken atheist. In The God Delusion he argues that belief in God is not supported by evidence, and he presents evolution and scientific reasoning as grounds for rejecting religious explanations of the world.

These views are contested. The reception paragraphs below set out the main responses to his position on religion.

How the person has been received since their lifetime, by supporters, critics and churches. Presented with attribution.

Supporters, including Christopher Hitchens and Steven Pinker, defended his position, and The God Delusion became an international bestseller.

Critics, including the physicist Peter Higgs and the astronomer Martin Rees, rejected his confrontational approach, and some argue that he misunderstands the theology he criticises.

The Atlas presents his views on religion as one position among several, and does not treat either the supporting or the critical reception as settled.

Reference profile, drafted with care. Key dates were checked against the sources marked below; other claims still need a scholarly source before release.

  • Reference work · Checked in this build

    Richard Dawkins — Wikipedia

    Opened in this session. Checked: birth date and place, the Oxford chair and its years, The Selfish Gene (1976), The God Delusion (2006), the foundation (2006), and the named supporters and critics. Critics’ and supporters’ positions are stated as the article summarises them; the books themselves have not been read for this profile.