Richard Dawkins

=== 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>