Richard Dawkins
Evolutionary Biologist & Author · b. 1941
Dawkins was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1941 and became one of the world’s most recognisable scientists and public intellectuals. A professor at the University of Oxford for 13 years, he is best known for popularising evolutionary biology and making a rigorous, patient case against religious belief.
As one of the “Four Horsemen of New Atheism” — alongside Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett — Dawkins has had a massive influence on how a generation thinks about faith, evidence, and science. He’s especially good at turning a religious argument around and asking: “But what would that actually mean?”
Evolution explains design without a designer
Natural selection, not God, is the watchmaker — and it's blind. Dawkins's central contribution is showing that apparent design in nature has a purely natural explanation.
Faith is epistemologically bankrupt
Believing without evidence isn't a virtue — it's a failure of intellectual responsibility. Dawkins argues faith should be challenged, not respected.
Religion as a virus of the mind
Building on his 'meme' concept from The Selfish Gene, Dawkins treats religious ideas as self-replicating cultural units that persist not because they're true, but because they're good at spreading.
Science as the poetry of reality
Rather than diminishing wonder, understanding how the universe actually works makes it more awe-inspiring. Mystery is not a reason to stop asking questions.
Greatest moments
Selected clips
The God Delusion
Dawkins’s 2006 book The God Delusion is the defining text of modern atheism — a detailed, accessible argument against the existence of God and the harms of religious thinking. It inspired a documentary of the same name.
Essential books
Dawkins versus Brandon Flowers
An unexpected but memorable exchange — the lead singer of The Killers is a committed Mormon, and Dawkins engages him with characteristic patience and precision.
Best quotes
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”
“Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.”
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction.”
“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.”
“There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning.”
“What If You’re Wrong?”
During a Q&A at Liberty University, a student asked Dawkins the classic question: “What if you’re wrong?” His response has become one of the most-shared clips in the atheist community.
You happen to have been brought up, I would presume, in a Christian faith. You know what it’s like to not believe in a particular faith because you’re not a Muslim. You’re not a Hindu. Why aren’t you a Hindu? Because you happen to have been brought up in America, not in India. If you had been brought up in India, you’d be a Hindu. If you had been brought up in Denmark in the time of the Vikings, you’d be believing in Wotan and Thor. If you were brought up in classical Greece, you’d be believing in Zeus. If you were brought up in central Africa, you’d be believing in the great Juju up the mountain. There’s no particular reason to pick on the Judeo-Christian god, in which by the sheerest accident you happen to have been brought up, and ask me the question, ‘What if I’m wrong?’ What if you’re wrong about the great Juju at the bottom of the sea?
Continue exploring
Watch the best debates
Dawkins features in multiple debates on our list, including his famous exchange with George Pell.
Christopher Hitchens
Fellow Horseman and author of God Is Not Great.
Quotes & criticisms
The best one-liners from Dawkins and others.
What is atheism?
A friendly introduction to atheism and what it actually means.
The argument from design
The argument from design — Dawkins's life's work dismantling it.