Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is an English scientist and author, who came to prominence with his ground-breaking work of evolutionary biology The Selfish Gene, although he is equally well known for his outspoken atheism and the controversial bestseller The God Delusion. Renowned for his pioneering work on the gene as the principle unit of selection in evolution, Dawkins has produced two highly influential works on the topic, 1976’s The Selfish Gene, and The Extended Phenotype six years later. His passionate rationalism has led him to mount frequent attacks on organised religion and the concept of a divine creator; an argument that first surfaced in The Blind Watchmaker in 1986 and was elucidated further in the bestselling The God Delusion twenty years later.