Showing results by author "Richard Dawkins" in All Categories

First coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation. Susan Blackmore shows that once our distant ancestors acquired the crucial ability to imitate, a second kind of natural selection began, a survival of the fittest amongst competing ideas and behaviors. Ideas and behaviors that proved most adaptive-making tools, for example, or using language - survived and flourished, replicating themselves in as many minds as possible.

The Greatest Show on Earth is a stunning counterattack on advocates of "Intelligent Design," explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist "argument". Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics.

Part 1 of Godless, "Rejecting God", tells the story of how I moved from devout preacher to atheist and beyond. Part 2, "Why I Am an Atheist", presents my philosophical reasons for unbelief. Part 3, "What's Wrong with Christianity", critiques the bible (its reliability as well as its morality) and the historical evidence for Jesus. Part 4, "Life Is Good!", comes back to my personal story, taking a case to the United States Supreme Court, dealing with personal trauma, and experiencing the excitement of Adventures in Atheism.

Keats accused Newton of destroying the poetry of the rainbow by explaining the origin of its colours. In this illuminating and provocative book, Richard Dawkins argues that Keats could not have been more mistaken and shows how an understanding of science enhances our wonder of the world. He argues that mysteries do not lose their poetry because they are solved: the solution is often more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering even deeper mysteries.

The Poetry of Reality is hosted by world renowned truth-teller, evolutionary biologist and best-selling author, Professor Richard Dawkins. He has been celebrated globally for his honest critique of religion and tradition and his push for critical thinking. His books include The Ancestor’s Tale, The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, A Devil’s Chaplain, The God Delusion, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Magic of Reality, his two-part autobiography An Appetite for Wonder and A Brief Candle in the Dark, and Outgrowing God: A Beginner...

Num tempo de guerras e ataques terroristas com motivações religiosas, o movimento pró-ateísmo ganha força no mundo todo. E seu líder intelectual é o respeitado biólogo Richard Dawkins, eleito um dos três intelectuais mais importantes do mundo (junto com Umberto Eco e Noam Chomsky) pela revista inglesa Prospect. Autor de vários clássicos nas áreas de ciência e filosofia, ele sempre atestou a irracionalidade de acreditar em Deus e os terríveis danos que a crença já causou à sociedade.

What are things made of? What is the sun? Why is there night and day, winter and summer? Why do bad things happen? Are we alone? Throughout history people all over the world have invented stories to answer profound questions such as these. Have you heard the tale of how the sun hatched out of an emu’s egg? Or what about the great catfish that carries the world on its back? Has anyone ever told you that earthquakes are caused by a sneezing giant?

Known as the ‘four horsemen’ of New Atheism, these four big thinkers of the 21st century met only once. Their electrifying examination of ideas on this remarkable occasion was intense and wide-ranging. Everything that was said as they agreed and disagreed with one another, interrogated ideas and exchanged insights - about religion and atheism, science and sense - speaks with urgency to our present age.

Here is a fantastic listen that works brilliantly alongside the massively popular The Atheist's Guide to Christmas. This Guide was edited by Ariane Sherine, who has managed to compile a wonderful concoction of the world's most entertaining writers, scientists, comedians, and philosophers to read, perform, and narrate pieces that they had all written for the print book version.

As the author of many classic works on science and philosophy, Richard Dawkins has always asserted the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm it has inflicted on society. He now focuses his fierce intellect exclusively on this subject, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.

The number-one Sunday Times best seller. A fascinating explanation of how evolution works from best-selling author of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins. Complete and unabridged and read by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward. The river of Dawkins' title is a river of DNA, flowing through time from the beginning of life on Earth to the present and onwards.

Should we believe in God? Do we need God in order to explain the existence of the universe? Do we need God in order to be good? In 12 chapters that address some of the most profound questions human beings confront, Dawkins marshals science, philosophy and comparative religion to interrogate the hypocrisies of all the religious systems and explain to listeners of all ages how life emerged without a Creator, how evolution works and how our world came into being.

In this deeply revealing and engaging autobiography, Herb Silverman tells his iconoclastic life story. He takes the listener from his childhood as an Orthodox Jew in Philadelphia, where he stopped fasting on Yom Kippur to test God's existence, to his adult life in the heart of the Bible Belt, where he became a legendary figure within America's secular activist community and remains one of its most beloved leaders. Never one to shy from controversy, Silverman relates many of his high-profile battles with the Religious Right.

Born to parents who were enthusiastic naturalists, and linked through his wider family to a clutch of accomplished scientists, Richard Dawkins was bound to have biology in his genes. But what were the influences that shaped his life and intellectual development? And who inspired him to become the pioneering scientist and public thinker now famous (and infamous to some) around the world?

In The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins takes on creationists, including followers of 'Intelligent Design' and all those who question the fact of evolution through natural selection. Like a detective arriving on the scene of a crime, he sifts through fascinating layers of scientific facts and disciplines to build a cast-iron case: from the living examples of natural selection in birds and insects.

Peut-on encore croire en Dieu ? Une introduction à l'athéisme moderne. Pendant longtemps, Dieu a été l'explication à tous les phénomènes étranges qui nous entourent. Après tout, comment expliquer les merveilles et la complexité de la nature sans imagine un créateur pour tout orchestrer ? Mais plus la science progresse, plus elle apporte de réponses tangibles à ces phénomènes autrefois attribués à Dieu. Ce sont la théorie de l'évolution et la génétique qui ont en tout cas convaincu Richard Dawkins, quand il avait 15 ans, d'arrêter de croire en Dieu.

Der Evolutionsbiologe Richard Dawkins, einer der einflussreichsten Intellektuellen der Gegenwart, hat einen Bestseller geschrieben, der bestehende Weltbilder grundsätzlich in Frage stellt...

Woraus besteht die Welt? Wer war der erste Mensch? Warum gibt es Leben auf der Erde? Seit jeher hat die Menschheit Mythen erfunden, um Antworten auf diese Fragen zu geben. Einer der einflussreichsten Evolutionsbiologen der vergangenen 50 Jahre, Autor des Bestsellers Der Gotteswahn Richard Dawkins erzählt diese Mythen und enthüllt die wissenschaftliche Wahrheit, die hinter ihnen steckt.

Breathtaking, brilliant and passionate, these essays, journalism, lectures and letters make an unanswerable case for the wonder of scientific discovery and its power to stir the imagination; for the practical necessity of scientific endeavour to society; and for the importance of the scientific way of thinking – particularly in today’s ‘post-truth’ world.

Découvrez la magie du monde réel ! De quoi les choses sont-elles faites ? Qui était le premier homme ? Pourquoi la vie existe-t-elle sur terre ? Les gens ont toujours inventé des mythes pour donner les réponses à ces questions. L'un des biologistes de l'évolution les plus influents des 50 dernières années, l'auteur du best-seller Pour en finir avec Dieu, Richard Dawkins, raconte ces mythes et révèle la vérité scientifique qui les sous-tend.