Richard Dawkins

== Background ==

=== Early life ===
Dawkins was born '''Clinton Richard Dawkins''' on 26 March 1941 in [[Nairobi]], the capital of [[Kenya Colony|Kenya during British colonial rule]].<ref name="encycdotcom">{{cite encyclopedia |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]] |access-date=16 May 2014 |archive-date=12 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012161749/http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3449200042/dawkins-richard-1941.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He 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 |access-date=26 November 2016 |archive-date=17 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617112151/https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/802104552195506178 |url-status=live }}</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 |access-date=15 October 2019 |archive-date=15 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015025639/https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/1183908617541562369 |url-status=live }}</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 the [[Second World War]]<ref>{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |title=The Ancestor's Tale |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tub-X6wydKgC |year=2004 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-618-00583-3 |page=317 |access-date=20 May 2020 |archive-date=23 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523013348/https://books.google.com/books?id=Tub-X6wydKgC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Brief Scientific Autobiography">{{cite web |url=http://richarddawkins.net/articles/4757-brief-scientific-autobiography |title=Brief Scientific Autobiography |access-date=17 July 2010 |publisher=Richard Dawkins Foundation |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100621114947/http://richarddawkins.net/articles/4757-brief-scientific-autobiography |archive-date=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 |access-date=12 December 2010 |location=London |archive-date=13 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213080623/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lives-remembered-john-dawkins-2157459.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Dawkins lives in [[Oxford]], England.<ref name="strident">{{cite news |title=Richard Dawkins: 'I don't think I am strident or aggressive' |first=Andrew |last=Anthony |date=15 September 2013 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/15/richard-dawkins-interview-appetite-wonder |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=21 September 2014 |archive-date=29 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529212022/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/15/richard-dawkins-interview-appetite-wonder |url-status=live }}</ref> He has a younger sister, Sarah.<ref name="Darwin's child"/>

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 |access-date=13 March 2008 |date=12 October 2001 |work=BBC News |archive-date=19 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619035204/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/1595744.stm |url-status=live }}</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]] |access-date=20 May 2020 |archive-date=23 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523013222/https://books.google.com/books?id=17rzvh_Ve0IC |url-status=live }}</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 |access-date=22 April 2008 |date=10 February 2003 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |archive-date=24 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724001426/https://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/scienceandnature/story/0,6000,892495,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He 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"/> This understanding of atheism combined with his western cultural background, informs Dawkins as he describes himself in several interviews as a "[[Cultural Christians|cultural Christian]]" and a "cultural [[Anglican]]".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7136682.stm |title=Dawkins: I'm a cultural Christian |access-date=1 March 2008 |date=10 December 2007 |work=BBC News}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite news |url=http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/qanda-with-richard-dawkins-i-guess-im-a-cultural-christian/Content?oid=4581071 |title=Q&A with Richard Dawkins: 'I guess I'm a cultural Christian' |access-date=4 March 2013 |date=4 March 2013 |publisher=Charleston City Paper |archive-date=7 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130307014227/http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/qanda-with-richard-dawkins-i-guess-im-a-cultural-christian/Content?oid=4581071 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.christianpost.com/news/richard-dawkins-i-guess-im-a-cultural-christian-91312/|title=Richard Dawkins: I Guess I'm a Cultural Christian |access-date=5 March 2013 |date=4 March 2013 |work=The Christian Post}}</ref>

=== Education ===
[[File:Oundlegreathall.jpg|thumb|left|The Great Hall, [[Oundle School]]]]
On his return to England from Nyasaland in 1949, at the age of eight, Dawkins joined [[Chafyn Grove School]], in [[Wiltshire]],<ref>Alister E. McGrath, ''Dawkins' God: From The Selfish Gene to The God Delusion'' (2015), p. 33</ref> where he says he was molested by a teacher.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ohlheiser |first1=Abby |title=Richard Dawkins Defends 'Mild' Pedophilia, Again and Again |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/richard-dawkins-defends-mild-pedophilia-again-and-again/311230/ |website=The Atlantic |access-date=3 April 2024 |language=en |date=11 September 2013}}</ref> From 1954 to 1959 attended [[Oundle School]] in [[Northamptonshire]], an English [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public school]] with a [[Church of England]] ethos,<ref name="Darwin's child"/> where he was in Laundimer House.<ref name="Oundle2012b">{{cite web |ref=CITEREFOundle2012b |url=http://www.oundleschool.org.uk./extracurric/lectures.php |title=The Oundle Lecture Series |publisher=[[Oundle School]] |year=2012b |access-date=12 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430063443/http://www.oundleschool.org.uk/extracurric/lectures.php |archive-date=30 April 2012}}</ref> While at Oundle, Dawkins read [[Bertrand Russell]]'s ''[[Why I Am Not a Christian]]'' for the first time.{{sfn|Dawkins|2015|p=175}} He studied [[zoology]] at [[Balliol College, Oxford]] (the same college his father attended), graduating in 1962; while there, he was tutored by [[Nobel Prize]]-winning ethologist [[Nikolaas Tinbergen]]. He graduated with a second-class degree.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3657215/Preaching-to-the-converted.html |title=Preaching to the converted |journal=Daily Telegraph |last=Preston |first=John |date=17 December 2006 |access-date=9 May 2019 |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235 |archive-date=9 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509210248/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3657215/Preaching-to-the-converted.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Dawkins continued as a research student under Tinbergen's supervision, receiving his [[Doctor of Philosophy]]<ref name=dawkins>{{cite thesis |degree=DPhil |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |title=Selective pecking in the domestic chick |publisher=University of Oxford |date=1966 |url=http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/OXVU1:LSCOP_OX:oxfaleph020515491 |website=bodleian.ox.ac.uk |access-date=8 November 2017 |archive-date=21 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121060816/http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?vid=SOLO&docid=oxfaleph020515491&context=L&search_scope=LSCOP_OX |url-status=live }} {{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.710826}}</ref> degree by 1966, and remained a research assistant for another year.<ref name="cv">{{cite web |url=http://www.fontem.com/archivos/usuarios/cv_521.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103225115/http://www.fontem.com/archivos/usuarios/cv_521.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 November 2012 |title=Curriculum vitae |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |date=1 January 2006 |access-date=13 March 2008 |ref=none}}</ref><ref name="cv2">{{cite web |url=http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/CV.shtml |title=Richard Dawkins: CV |date=1 January 2006 |access-date=1 March 2007 |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080423211133/http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/CV.shtml |archive-date=23 April 2008 |ref=none}} For direct link to media, see [https://web.archive.org/web/20070225195322/http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/CV.pdf this link]</ref> Tinbergen was a pioneer in the study of animal behaviour, particularly in the areas of [[instinct]], learning, and choice;<ref name="Shrage">{{cite news |first=Michael |last=Schrage |title=Revolutionary Evolutionist |date=July 1995 |url=https://www.wired.com/1995/07/dawkins/ |magazine=Wired |access-date=21 April 2008 |archive-date=29 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429065556/http://www.wired.com/1995/07/dawkins/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Dawkins's research in this period concerned models of animal decision-making.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |title=A threshold model of choice behaviour |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=17 |year=1969 |doi=10.1016/0003-3472(69)90120-1 |pages=120–133 |issue=1}}</ref>

=== Teaching ===

From 1967 to 1969, Dawkins was an assistant professor of zoology at the [[University of California, Berkeley]]. During this period, the students and faculty at UC Berkeley were largely opposed to the ongoing [[Vietnam War]], and Dawkins became involved in the [[Opposition to the Vietnam War|anti-war]] demonstrations and activities.<ref name="belief interview">{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/people/dawkins.shtml |title="Belief" interview |access-date=8 April 2008 |date=5 April 2004 |publisher=BBC |archive-date=29 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329090942/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/people/dawkins.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> He returned to the University of Oxford in 1970 as a lecturer. In 1990, he became a [[reader (academic rank)|reader]] in zoology. In 1995, he was appointed [[Simonyi Professorship for the Public Understanding of Science|Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science]] at Oxford, a position that had been endowed by [[Charles Simonyi]] with the express intention that the holder "be expected to make important contributions to the public understanding of some scientific field",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/aims/charles-simonyis-manifesto.html |title=Manifesto for the Simonyi Professorship |access-date=13 March 2008 |last=Simonyi |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Simonyi |date=15 May 1995 |publisher=The University of Oxford |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205051240/http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/aims/charles-simonyis-manifesto.html |archive-date=5 February 2016}}</ref> and that its first holder should be Richard Dawkins.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/aims.html |title=Aims of the Simonyi Professorship |date=23 April 2008 |access-date=28 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206202718/http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/aims.html |archive-date=6 February 2016}}</ref> He held that professorship from 1995 until 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/previous-holders-simonyi-professorship.html |title=Previous holders of The Simonyi Professorship |access-date=23 September 2010 |publisher=The University of Oxford |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131193825/http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/previous-holders-simonyi-professorship.html |archive-date=31 January 2016}}</ref>

Since 1970, he has been a [[Oxford fellow|fellow]] of [[New College, Oxford]], and he is now an [[emeritus]] fellow.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/emeritus-honorary-and-wykeham-fellows |title=Emeritus, Honorary and Wykeham Fellows |date=2 May 2008 |access-date=20 January 2016 |publisher=[[New College, Oxford]] |archive-date=10 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070510045539/http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/Teaching_and_Research/Staff_Profile_Page.php?staffId=15 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/previous-holders-simonyi-professorship/professor-richard-dawkins.html |title=The Current Simonyi Professor: Richard Dawkins |access-date=13 March 2008 |publisher=The University of Oxford |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311205030/http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/previous-holders-simonyi-professorship/professor-richard-dawkins.html |archive-date=11 March 2016}}</ref> He has delivered many lectures, including the [[Henry Sidgwick]] Memorial Lecture (1989), the first [[Erasmus Darwin]] Memorial Lecture (1990), the [[Michael Faraday]] Lecture (1991), the [[Thomas Henry Huxley|T. H. Huxley]] Memorial Lecture (1992), the [[James Irvine (chemist)|Irvine]] Memorial Lecture (1997), the Tinbergen Lecture (2004), and the [[Tanner Lectures]] (2003).<ref name=cv/> In 1991, he gave the [[Royal Institution Christmas Lectures|Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children]] on ''[[Growing Up in the Universe]]''. He also has edited several journals and has acted as an editorial advisor to the ''Encarta Encyclopedia'' and the ''[[Encyclopedia of Evolution]]''. He is listed as a senior editor and a columnist of the [[Council for Secular Humanism]]'s ''Free Inquiry'' magazine and has been a member of the editorial board of ''[[Skeptic (U.S. magazine)|Skeptic]]'' magazine since its foundation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.skeptic.com/the_magazine/editorial_board.html |title=Editorial Board |access-date=22 April 2008 |publisher=The Skeptics' Society |archive-date=10 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410145522/http://www.skeptic.com/the_magazine/editorial_board.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Dawkins has sat on judging panels for awards as diverse as the [[Royal Society]]'s [[Faraday Award]] and the [[British Academy Television Awards]],<ref name="cv" /> and has been president of the Biological Sciences section of the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]]. In 2004, [[Balliol College, Oxford]], instituted the Dawkins Prize, awarded for "outstanding research into the ecology and behaviour of animals whose welfare and survival may be endangered by human activities".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/official/miscellany/dawkins/index.asp |title=The Dawkins Prize for Animal Conservation and Welfare |access-date=30 March 2008 |date=9 November 2007 |publisher=Balliol College, Oxford |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070912192317/http://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/official/miscellany/dawkins/index.asp |archive-date=12 September 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In September 2008, he retired from his professorship, announcing plans to "write a book aimed at youngsters in which he will warn them against believing in 'anti-scientific' fairytales."<ref name="telegraph2008">{{cite news |title=Harry Potter fails to cast spell over Professor Richard Dawkins |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3255972/Harry-Potter-fails-to-cast-spell-over-Professor-Richard-Dawkins.html |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=1 November 2008 |author1=Beckford, Martin |author2=Khan, Urmee |name-list-style=amp |location=London |date=24 October 2008 |archive-date=4 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081104032214/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3255972/Harry-Potter-fails-to-cast-spell-over-Professor-Richard-Dawkins.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2011, Dawkins joined the professoriate of the [[New College of the Humanities]], a [[private university]] in London established by [[A. C. Grayling]], which opened in September 2012.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8557555/New-university-to-rival-Oxbridge-will-charge-18000-a-year.html |title=New university to rival Oxbridge will charge £18,000 a year |date=5 June 2011 |access-date=20 January 2016 |work=[[Sunday Telegraph]] |archive-date=29 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190429113425/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/8557555/New-university-to-rival-Oxbridge-will-charge-18000-a-year.html |url-status=live }}</ref>