Richard Dawkins

===Criticism of religion===
[[File:Richard dawkins lecture.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Lecturing on his book ''[[The God Delusion]]'', 24 June 2006]]

Dawkins was confirmed into the Church of England at the age of 13, but began to grow sceptical of the beliefs. He said that his understanding of science and evolutionary processes led him to question how adults in positions of leadership in a civilised world could still be so uneducated in biology,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.beliefnet.com/story/178/story_17889_2.html |title=The Problem with God: Interview with Richard Dawkins (2) |access-date=11 April 2008 |last=Sheahen |first=Laura |date=October 2005 |publisher=Beliefnet.com |archive-date=10 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410075833/http://www.beliefnet.com/story/178/story_17889_2.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and is puzzled by how belief in God could remain among individuals who are sophisticated in science. Dawkins says that some physicists use 'God' as a metaphor for the general awe-inspiring mysteries of the universe, which he says causes confusion and misunderstanding among people who incorrectly think they are talking about a mystical being who forgives sins, transubstantiates wine, or makes people live after they die.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/transcript/dawk-frame.html |title=Interview with Richard Dawkins |access-date=12 April 2008 |publisher=PBS |archive-date=20 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620151103/http://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/transcript/dawk-frame.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

He disagrees with [[Stephen Jay Gould]]'s principle of [[Non-overlapping magisteria|nonoverlapping magisteria (NOMA)]]<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1555132-3,00.html |title=God vs. Science (3) |access-date=3 April 2008 |date=5 November 2006 |last=Van Biema |first=David |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |archive-date=11 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211180034/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1555132-3,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and suggests that the [[existence of God]] should be treated as a scientific hypothesis like any other.{{sfn|Dawkins|2006|p=50}} Dawkins became a prominent [[criticism of religion|critic of religion]] and has stated his [[Antireligion|opposition to religion]] as twofold: religion is both a source of conflict and a justification for belief without evidence.{{sfn|Dawkins|2006|pp=282–286}} He considers faith—belief that is not based on evidence—as "one of the world's great evils".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/articles/dawkins.html |title=Is Science A Religion? |publisher=The Humanist |first=Richard |last=Dawkins |date=1 January 1997 |access-date=31 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030144700/http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/articles/dawkins.html |archive-date=30 October 2012}}</ref>

On his [[spectrum of theistic probability]], which ranges from 1 (100% certainty that a God or gods exist) to 7 (100% certainty that a God or gods do not exist), Dawkins has said he is a 6.9, which represents a "de facto atheist" who thinks "I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there." When asked about his slight uncertainty, Dawkins quips, "I am agnostic to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at the bottom of the garden."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9102740/Richard-Dawkins-I-cant-be-sure-God-does-not-exist.html |title=Richard Dawkins: I can't be sure God does not exist |date=24 February 2012 |access-date=5 March 2016 |first=John |last=Bingham |location=London |work=The Telegraph |archive-date=24 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524001926/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9102740/Richard-Dawkins-I-cant-be-sure-God-does-not-exist.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/201202/why-does-richard-dawkins-take-issue-agnosticism |title=Why Does Richard Dawkins Take Issue With Agnosticism? |date=2 February 2012 |access-date=5 April 2016 |work=Psychology Today |first=Christopher |last=Lane }}</ref> In May 2014, at the [[Hay Festival]] in Wales, Dawkins explained that while he does not believe in the supernatural elements of the Christian faith, he still has nostalgia for the ceremonial side of religion.<ref>{{cite news |first=Sarah |last=Knapton |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/10853648/Richard-Dawkins-I-am-a-secular-Christian.html |title=Richard Dawkins: 'I am a secular Christian' |newspaper=Telegraph |access-date=9 June 2014 |archive-date=21 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221043247/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/10853648/Richard-Dawkins-I-am-a-secular-Christian.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition to beliefs in deities, Dawkins has criticized religious beliefs as irrational, such as that Jesus turned water into wine, that an embryo starts as a blob, that [[Temple garment|magic underwear]] will protect you, that Jesus was resurrected, that [[semen]] comes from the spine, that Jesus walked on water, that the sun sets in a marsh, that the Garden of Eden existed in [[Adam-ondi-Ahman]], Missouri, that Jesus' mother was a virgin, that [[Splitting of the moon|Muhammad split the moon]], and that [[Raising of Lazarus|Lazarus was raised from the dead]].{{refn|<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-dawkins-islamophobic-berkeley-event-cancelled-islam-muslim-uc-university-california-a7860281.html|title=Richard Dawkins hits back at allegations he is Islamophobic after Berkeley event is cancelled|website=[[Independent.co.uk]]|date=26 July 2017|access-date=10 September 2017|archive-date=29 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829181754/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-dawkins-islamophobic-berkeley-event-cancelled-islam-muslim-uc-university-california-a7860281.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/681453611906396160 |title=Dawkins Twitter This is almost as impressive as the prescient knowledge that embryo starts as a blob, semen comes from the spine & the sun sets in a marsh. |access-date=26 July 2017 |archive-date=21 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121060816/https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/681453611906396160 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/344419641101275137 |title='Did Jesus exist?' Who cares? 'Did Jesus lack a father? Raise Lazarus? Walk on water? Resurrect?' I care, and the answer is no in all cases. |access-date=1 August 2017 |archive-date=21 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121060841/https://pbs.twimg.com/hashflag/config-2020-11-21-06.json |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/677189384169512960 |title=There are people who believe Jesus turned water into wine. How do they hold down a job in the 21st century? |access-date=1 August 2017 |archive-date=21 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121060819/https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/677189384169512960 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/685591187479212032 |title=Ridicule is the proper response to beliefs such as Jesus' mother was a virgin, Joshua slowed Earth's rotation or Muhammad split the moon. |access-date=1 August 2017 |archive-date=21 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121060820/https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/685591187479212032 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/255543797528817664 |title=Over and above believing surreal nonsense about planets and magic stones, hats and underwear, Romney is also a liar |access-date=1 August 2017 |archive-date=19 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719043539/https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/255543797528817664 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/244790357420826626 |title=Could you really vote for a man who thinks the Garden of Eden was in Missouri? |access-date=1 August 2017 |archive-date=30 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171030133510/https://twitter.com/richarddawkins/status/244790357420826626 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Dawkins has risen to prominence in public debates concerning science and religion since the publication of his most popular book, ''[[The God Delusion]]'', in 2006, which became an international bestseller.<ref name="michaelpowell">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/science/20dawkins.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 |title=A Knack for Bashing Orthodoxy |newspaper=The New York Times |first=Michael |last=Powell |access-date=31 December 2012 |date=19 September 2011 |archive-date=27 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121227231703/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/science/20dawkins.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 |url-status=live }}</ref> As of 2015, more than three million copies have been sold and the book has been translated into over 30 languages.{{sfn|Dawkins|2015|p=173}} Its success has been seen by many as indicative of a change in the contemporary cultural [[zeitgeist]] and has also been identified with the rise of [[New Atheism]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/08/atheism.feature/index.html |title=The rise of the New Atheists |publisher=CNN |first=Simon |last=Hooper |date=9 November 2006 |access-date=16 March 2010 |archive-date=8 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100408094135/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/08/atheism.feature/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the book, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a [[delusion]]—"a fixed false belief".{{sfn|Dawkins|2006|p=5}} In his February 2002 [[TED (conference)|TED]] talk entitled "Militant atheism", Dawkins urged all atheists to openly state their position and to fight the incursion of the church into politics and science.<ref name="militant" /> On 30 September 2007, Dawkins, [[Christopher Hitchens]], [[Sam Harris (author)|Sam Harris]], and [[Daniel Dennett]] met at Hitchens's residence for a private, unmoderated discussion that lasted two hours. The event was videotaped and entitled "The Four Horsemen".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |date=1 October 2013 |title=The Four Horsemen DVD |url=https://centerforinquiry.org/store/product/the-four-horsemen-discussions-with-richard-dawkins-episode-1-dvd/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170611214236/https://richarddawkins.net/2013/10/the-four-horsemen-dvd-19-95/ |archive-date=11 June 2017 |access-date=13 April 2016 |website=Richard Dawkins Foundation |language=en-US}} See also {{YouTube|9DKhc1pcDFM}}</ref>

Dawkins sees education and [[consciousness raising|consciousness-raising]] as the primary tools in opposing what he considers to be religious dogma and indoctrination.<ref name="belief interview"/><ref name="education">{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Alexandra |url=http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1958138,00.html |title=Dawkins campaigns to keep God out of classroom |access-date=15 January 2007 |date=27 November 2006 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |archive-date=9 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080709084224/http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1958138,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="bright">{{cite news |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,981412,00.html |title=The future looks bright |access-date=13 March 2008 |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |date=21 June 2003 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |archive-date=6 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080606085217/http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,981412,00.html |url-status=live |ref=none}}</ref> These tools include the fight against certain stereotypes, and he has adopted the term ''[[brights movement|bright]]'' as a way of associating positive public connotations with those who possess a [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalistic]] worldview.<ref name="bright"/> He has given support to the idea of a free-thinking school,<ref name="Powell">{{cite news |last=Powell |first=Michael |title=A Knack for Bashing Orthodoxy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/science/20dawkins.html |date=19 September 2011 |work=The New York Times |page=4 |access-date=20 September 2011 |archive-date=17 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190317151949/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/science/20dawkins.html |url-status=live }}</ref> which would not "indoctrinate children" but would instead teach children to ask for evidence and be skeptical, critical, and open-minded. Such a school, says Dawkins, should "teach comparative religion, and teach it properly without any bias towards particular religions, and including historically important but dead religions, such as those of ancient Greece and the Norse gods, if only because these, like the Abrahamic scriptures, are important for understanding English literature and European history."<ref name="telegraph1">{{cite news |last=Beckford |first=Martin |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7849563/Richard-Dawkins-interested-in-setting-up-atheist-free-school.html |title=Richard Dawkins interested in setting up 'atheist free school' |newspaper=Telegraph |date=24 June 2010 |access-date=29 July 2010 |location=London |archive-date=27 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100627144143/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7849563/Richard-Dawkins-interested-in-setting-up-atheist-free-school.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/gove-welcomes-atheist-schools-2037990.html |title=Gove welcomes atheist schools – Education News, Education |newspaper=The Independent |date=29 July 2010 |access-date=29 July 2010 |location=London |first=Richard |last=Garner |archive-date=1 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100801053001/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/gove-welcomes-atheist-schools-2037990.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Inspired by the consciousness-raising successes of [[Feminism|feminists]] in arousing widespread embarrassment at the routine use of "he" instead of "she", Dawkins similarly suggests that phrases such as "Catholic child" and "Muslim child" should be considered as socially absurd as, for instance, "Marxist child", as he believes that children should not be classified based on the ideological or religious beliefs of their parents.<ref name="bright" />

While some critics, such as writer [[Christopher Hitchens]], psychologist [[Steven Pinker]] and [[Nobel laureate]]s Sir [[Harold Kroto]], [[James D. Watson]], and [[Steven Weinberg]] have defended Dawkins's stance on religion and praised his work,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://richarddawkins.net/godDelusionReviews |title=The God Delusion&nbsp;– Reviews |access-date=8 April 2008 |publisher=Richard Dawkins Foundation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080702000504/http://richarddawkins.net/godDelusionReviews |archive-date=2 July 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> others, including [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize]]-winning [[theoretical physicist]] [[Peter Higgs]], [[astrophysicist]] [[Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow|Martin Rees]], philosopher of science [[Michael Ruse]], literary critic [[Terry Eagleton]], philosopher [[Roger Scruton]], academic and social critic [[Camille Paglia]], atheist philosopher Daniel Came and theologian [[Alister McGrath]],{{refn|<ref>{{cite book |last=McGrath |first=Alister |author-link=Alister McGrath |title=Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life |year=2004 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |location=Oxford, England |isbn=978-1-4051-2538-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dawkinsgodgenesm0000mcgr/page/81 81] |url=https://archive.org/details/dawkinsgodgenesm0000mcgr/page/81 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/02/atheism-dawkins-ruse |location=London |work=The Guardian |first=Michael |last=Ruse |author-link=Michael Ruse |title=Dawkins et al bring us into disrepute |date=2 November 2009 |access-date=23 April 2016 |archive-date=19 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919173459/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/02/atheism-dawkins-ruse |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/oct/02/richard-dawkins-humanists-religion-atheists |location=London |work=The Guardian |first=Michael |last=Ruse |author-link=Michael Ruse |title=Why Richard Dawkins' humanists remind me of a religion |date=2 October 2012 |access-date=13 December 2016 |archive-date=21 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180821191854/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/oct/02/richard-dawkins-humanists-religion-atheists |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="salon.com">{{cite web |url=https://www.salon.com/2015/07/29/camille_paglia_takes_on_jon_stewart_trump_sanders_liberals_think_of_themselves_as_very_open_minded_but_that%e2%80%99s_simply_not_true/ |title=Camille Paglia takes on Jon Stewart, Trump, Sanders: "Liberals think of themselves as very open-minded, but that's simply not true!" |date=29 July 2015 |website=Salon |access-date=4 February 2019 |archive-date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204231514/https://www.salon.com/2015/07/29/camille_paglia_takes_on_jon_stewart_trump_sanders_liberals_think_of_themselves_as_very_open_minded_but_that%e2%80%99s_simply_not_true/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="spectator.co.uk">{{cite web |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/2006/01/dawkins-is-wrong-about-god/ |title=Dawkins is wrong about God |date=14 January 2006 |website=The Spectator |access-date=19 January 2019 |archive-date=12 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612141649/https://www.spectator.co.uk/2006/01/dawkins-is-wrong-about-god/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/oct/22/richard-dawkins-refusal-debate-william-lane-craig |title=Richard Dawkins's refusal to debate is cynical and anti-intellectualist |first=Daniel |last=Came |newspaper=The Guardian |date=22 October 2011 |via=www.theguardian.com |access-date=19 January 2019 |archive-date=30 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930081527/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/oct/22/richard-dawkins-refusal-debate-william-lane-craig |url-status=live }}</ref>}} have criticised Dawkins on various grounds, including the assertion that his work simply serves as an atheist counterpart to religious fundamentalism rather than a productive critique of it, and that he has fundamentally misapprehended the foundations of the [[theological]] positions he claims to refute. Rees and Higgs, in particular, have both rejected Dawkins's confrontational stance toward religion as narrow and "embarrassing", with Higgs going as far as to equate Dawkins with the religious fundamentalists he criticises.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching |title=Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching |first=Terry |last=Eagleton· |date=19 October 2006 |magazine=[[London Review of Books]] |access-date=16 May 2014 |volume=28 |issue=20 |pages=32–34 |archive-date=10 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100310145648/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://richarddawkins.net/articleComments,1647,Do-you-have-to-read-up-on-leprechology-before-disbelieving-in-them,Richard-Dawkins-The-Independent,page27 |title=Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in them? |access-date=14 November 2007 |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |date=17 September 2007 |publisher=Richard Dawkins Foundation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214014838/http://richarddawkins.net/articleComments,1647,Do-you-have-to-read-up-on-leprechology-before-disbelieving-in-them,Richard-Dawkins-The-Independent,page27 |archive-date=14 December 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2007/story/0,,2089947,00.html |title=Scientists divided over alliance with religion |access-date=17 March 2008 |last=Jha |first=Alok |date=29 May 2007 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |archive-date=19 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719103328/http://books.guardian.co.uk/hay2007/story/0,,2089947,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Jha |first=Alok |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/dec/26/peter-higgs-richard-dawkins-fundamentalism |title=Peter Higgs criticises Richard Dawkins over anti-religious 'fundamentalism' |date=26 December 2012 |access-date=20 January 2016 |work=[[The Guardian]] |archive-date=28 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028180407/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/dec/26/peter-higgs-richard-dawkins-fundamentalism |url-status=live }}</ref> Atheist philosopher [[John Gray (philosopher)|John Gray]] has denounced Dawkins as an "anti-religious missionary", whose assertions are "in no sense novel or original", suggesting that "transfixed in wonderment at the workings of his own mind, Dawkins misses much that is of importance in human beings." Gray has also criticised Dawkins's perceived allegiance to Darwin, stating that if "science, for Darwin, was a method of inquiry that enabled him to edge tentatively and humbly toward the truth, for Dawkins, science is an unquestioned view of the world."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/119596/appetite-wonder-review-closed-mind-richard-dawkins |title=The Closed Mind of Richard Dawkins |date=2 October 2014 |access-date=20 January 2016 |first=John |last=Gray |magazine=New Republic |archive-date=16 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216012235/https://newrepublic.com/article/119596/appetite-wonder-review-closed-mind-richard-dawkins |url-status=live }}</ref> A 2016 study found that many British scientists held an unfavourable view of Dawkins and his attitude towards religion.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/richard-dawkins-atheism-criticism-atheist-study-rice-university-science-scientists-a7389396.html |title=British scientists don't like Richard Dawkins, finds study that didn't even ask questions about Richard Dawkins |date=31 October 2016 |first =Andrew |last =Griffin |work=The Independent }}</ref> In response to his critics, Dawkins maintains that theologians are no better than scientists in addressing deep [[cosmological]] questions and that he is not a fundamentalist, as he is willing to change his mind in the face of new evidence.{{sfn|Dawkins|2006}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/dawkins_18_2.html |title=When Religion Steps on Science's Turf |access-date=3 April 2008 |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |year=2006 |work=Free Inquiry |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080419125549/http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/dawkins_18_2.html |archive-date=19 April 2008 |ref=none}}</ref><ref name=rdf-fundamentalist>{{cite web |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |title=How dare you call me a fundamentalist |url=http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/1071-how-dare-you-call-me-a-fundamentalist |publisher=Richard Dawkins Foundation |access-date=28 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231022508/http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/1071-how-dare-you-call-me-a-fundamentalist |archive-date=31 December 2012}}</ref>

Dawkins has faced backlash over some of his public comments about Islam. In 2013, Dawkins [[Twitter|tweeted]] that "All the world's Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge. They did great things in the Middle Ages, though."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Malik |first1=Nesrine |title=Richard Dawkins' tweets on Islam are as rational as the rants of an extremist Muslim cleric |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/08/richard-dawkins-tweets-islam-muslim-nobel |access-date=5 August 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=8 August 2013}}</ref> In 2016, Dawkins' invitation to speak at the [[Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism]] was withdrawn over his sharing of what was characterized as a "highly offensive video" satirically showing cartoon feminist and Islamist characters singing about the things they hold in common. In issuing the tweet, Dawkins stated that it "Obviously doesn't apply to vast majority of feminists, among whom I count myself. But the minority are pernicious."<ref name="Blair2016">{{cite news |last1=Blair |first1=Olivia |date=29 January 2016 |title=Richard Dawkins dropped from science event for tweeting video mocking feminists and Islamists |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-dawkins-vdeo-twitter-necss-event-feminism-a6841161.html |access-date=5 August 2021}}</ref>

====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>