Richard Dawkins

====Criticism of creationism====
Dawkins is a prominent critic of [[creationism]], a religious belief that [[human]]ity, [[life]], and the [[universe]] were created by a [[deity]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/creationism/ |title=Creationism |last=Ruse |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Ruse |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Laboratory, [[Stanford University]] |quote=a Creationist is someone who believes in a god who is absolute creator of heaven and earth. |access-date=9 September 2009 |archive-date=9 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609094515/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/creationism/ |url-status=live }}</ref> without recourse to evolution.<ref>{{cite book |last=Scott |first=Eugenie C |author-link=Eugenie Scott |title=Evolution vs. creationism: an introduction |year= 2009 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-26187-7 |page=51 |chapter=Creationism |quote=The term 'creationism' to many people connotes the theological doctrine of special creationism: that God created the universe essentially as we see it today, and that this universe has not changed appreciably since that creation event. Special creationism includes the idea that God created living things in their present forms...}}</ref> He has described the [[Young Earth creationism|young Earth creationist]] view that the Earth is only a few thousand years old as "a preposterous, mind-shrinking falsehood".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/mar/09/religion.schools1 |title=A scientist's view |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |date=9 March 2002 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=7 November 2009 |location=London |archive-date=21 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180821191933/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/mar/09/religion.schools1 |url-status=live }}</ref> His 1986 book, ''[[The Blind Watchmaker]]'', contains a sustained critique of the [[Teleological argument|argument from design]], an important creationist argument. In the book, Dawkins argues against the [[watchmaker analogy]] made famous by the eighteenth-century English [[theology|theologian]] [[William Paley]] via his book ''Natural Theology'', in which Paley argues that just as a watch is too complicated and too functional to have sprung into existence merely by accident, so too must all living things—with their far greater complexity—be purposefully designed. Dawkins shares the view generally held by scientists that natural selection is sufficient to explain the apparent functionality and non-random complexity of the biological world, and can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, albeit as an automatic, unguided by any designer, nonintelligent, ''blind'' watchmaker.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Books/blind.shtml |title=Book: The Blind Watchmaker |access-date=28 February 2008 |last=Catalano |first=John |publisher=The University of Oxford |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415140851/http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Books/blind.shtml |date=1 August 1996 |archive-date=15 April 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Dawkins aaconf.jpg|thumb|left|Wearing a [[scarlet 'A']] lapel pin, at the 34th annual conference of [[American Atheists]] (2008)]]

In 1986, Dawkins and biologist [[John Maynard Smith]] participated in an [[Oxford Union]] debate against [[A. E. Wilder-Smith]] (a Young Earth creationist) and [[Edgar Andrews]] (president of the [[Biblical Creation Society]]).{{Ref label|b|b|none}} In general, however, Dawkins has followed the advice of his late colleague [[Stephen Jay Gould]] and refused to participate in formal debates with creationists because "what they seek is the oxygen of respectability", and doing so would "give them this oxygen by the mere act of ''engaging'' with them at all". He suggests that creationists "don't mind being beaten in an argument. What matters is that we give them recognition by bothering to argue with them in public."{{sfn|Dawkins|2003|p=218}} In a December 2004 interview with American journalist [[Bill Moyers]], Dawkins said that "among the things that science does know, evolution is about as certain as anything we know." When Moyers questioned him on the [[Evolution as theory and fact|use of the word ''theory'']], Dawkins stated that "evolution has been observed. It's just that it hasn't been observed while it's happening." He added that "it is rather like a detective coming on a murder after the scene... the detective hasn't actually seen the murder take place, of course. But what you do see is a massive clue... Huge quantities of circumstantial evidence. It might as well be spelled out in words of English."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript349_full.html#dawkins |title='Now' with Bill Moyers |access-date=29 January 2006 |last=Moyers |first=Bill |date=3 December 2004 |publisher=Public Broadcasting Service |archive-date=16 May 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060516223956/http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript349_full.html#dawkins |url-status=live }}</ref>

Dawkins has opposed the inclusion of [[intelligent design]] in science education, describing it as "not a scientific argument at all, but a religious one".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/sep/01/schools.research |title=One side can be wrong |access-date=21 December 2006 |date=1 September 2005 |author1=Dawkins, Richard |author2=Coyne, Jerry |name-list-style=amp |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |archive-date=26 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226232200/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/sep/01/schools.research |url-status=live }}</ref> He has been referred to in the media as "Darwin's [[Rottweiler]]",<ref name="discover">{{cite web |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2005/sep/darwins-rottweiler |title=Darwin's Rottweiler |access-date=22 March 2008 |last=Hall |first=Stephen S. |date=9 August 2005 |work=[[Discover (magazine)|Discover]] magazine |archive-date=21 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080321202431/http://discovermagazine.com/2005/sep/darwins-rottweiler/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=mcgrath>{{cite book |last1=McGrath |first1=Alister |title=Dawkins' God: genes, memes, and the meaning of life |date=2007 |publisher=Blackwell |location=Malden, MA |isbn=978-1405125383 |page=i |edition=Reprinted |url=https://archive.org/details/dawkinsgodgenesm0000mcgr }}</ref> a reference to English biologist [[Thomas Henry Huxley|T. H. Huxley]], who was known as "Darwin's [[Bulldog]]" for his advocacy of [[Charles Darwin]]'s evolutionary ideas. He has been a strong critic of the British organisation [[Truth in Science]], which promotes the teaching of creationism in state schools, and whose work Dawkins has described as an "educational scandal". He plans to subsidise schools through the [[Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science]] with the delivery of books, DVDs, and pamphlets that counteract their work.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/student/news/article641971.ece |title=Godless Dawkins challenges schools |access-date=3 April 2008 |date=19 November 2006 |last=Swinford |first=Steven |work=The Times |location=London |archive-date=5 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805101216/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/student/news/article641971.ece |url-status=live }}</ref>