When Dawkins was deciding what his next, he likely contemplated whether to become a cult leader or write this book. Writing won, but gauging by how much he puts himself on a pedestal, he would have been great at either. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I do admire the guy. His theory is thorough and original. Most of all, I admire how he attempts to bridge the gap of academia and the public by publishing his books in a way that makes it accessible to everyone. All that said, he is undeniably conceited. He might be brilliant, but he knows he is brilliant and that ruins it.<\/p>\n
I find his theory appealing. For someone focusing on population genetics and evolution, I would love to love his theory, but I don\u2019t. I think there is not just one unit of selection, but rather it depends on the situation which unit selection gets to act on. Genes are the smallest units selection can act on, but I believe it can act on individuals, groups, populations and species.<\/p>\n
\u00a0In his attempt to take God out of the situation, because he has to bring atheism into everything he does, he rules on a lot of absolutes that you can\u2019t really claim for sure. For example, I don\u2019t think there is no act of altruism ever, but I agree that it is not evolutionarily stable. I agree that the goal of an organism is to reproduce and have its offspring reproduce, but I don\u2019t agree that every action on behalf of an organism is evolutionarily calculated. I think his section on mate selection is riddled with sexism and could use a lot more female perspective. Finally, I think his section on culture was weird and out of place. He could have just left that chapter out and been better off, but since he must be an expert on everything, here is his opinion on culture and, you guessed it folks, God.<\/p>\n
\u00a0I think this book is gained popularity because it makes a lot of sense for people who lack a scientific background and perhaps aren\u2019t reading it as critically. This is something I would warn the general public about, but generally would encourage both scientists and nonscientist to read it. For scientists, it offers several thought experiments that really force you to think about concepts we once held without question. For the general public, it is an interesting and engaging introduction to evolutionary theory.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m glad I finally read this book so I can know exactly where I disagree with Dawkins. At the end of the day thought, I hope to one day be half as confident in a theory that\u2019s a fourth as insightful as his.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Dawkins was deciding what his next, he likely contemplated whether to become a cult leader or write this book. Writing won, but gauging by how much he puts himself on a pedestal, he would have been great at either. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I do admire the guy. His theory is thorough and original. … Continue reading My Take on Dawkins<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3744,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-75","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/carmen-alvarez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/carmen-alvarez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/carmen-alvarez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/carmen-alvarez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/carmen-alvarez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/carmen-alvarez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/carmen-alvarez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/carmen-alvarez\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}