Transcript RICHARD DAWKINS

RICHARD DAWKINS
Professor of the
Public Understanding
of Science at Oxford
University. His books
about evolution and
science include The
Selfish Gene, The
Extended Phenotype,
The Blind
Watchmaker, River
Out of Eden, Climbing
Mount Improbable,
and most recently,
Unweaving the
Rainbow
• Dawkins rejects
any concept of
an immortal soul
• River Out of
Eden, 1995, puts
forward a case
for biological
materialism
“There is no
spirit-driven life
force, no
throbbing,
heaving,
pullulating,
protoplasmic,
mystic jelly. Life
is just bytes and
bytes and bytes
of digital
information.”
Dawkins
argument for a
biologically
materialist
system for life
concludes that
any evidence of
“divine activity”
is an illusion.
• Humans are
merely carriers
of DNA.
• Information flows
through time, but
bones and tissue
do not.
• Evolution is the
only rational
theory.
• It is not our soul
that guides us,
but our genetic
make-up.
• Over time the
good genes
survive; the bad
genes die out.
• We are as we are
because of our
genetic makeup,
not the efforts of
our soul to guide
us towards the
realm of ideas.
• No soul continues,
only DNA, the
function of life.
• The belief,
therefore, in an
immortal soul is
anachronistic and
damaging to
human endeavour.
• He argues that
myths (such as
Plato’s Forms) and
faiths are not
supported by
evidence.
• Scientific beliefs
are supported by
evidence.
• Life lacks
purpose and is
indifferent to
suffering.
• There is no
Creator-God.
• Our sense of self
and individuality is
based on digital
information, not the
soul.
• Our genes are a
colony of information
that wants to be
replicated.
• It is easier for this to
happen in a multicell organism.
• The genes are
found in behaviour
so the bodies
acquire
individuality.
• We feel like a
single organism,
not a colony, as
selection has
favoured genes
that cooperate.
• Genes working
together give us a
sense of
individuality, not
the soul.
• The colony needs
a central control.
• The genetic model
becomes more
complex . . .
• And thinks about
itself as an
individual and
considers the
consequences of
its actions.
• This leads to
human culture, a
‘replicator’ or
‘meme’
• Tunes,
catchphrases,
quotes, teachings
which are heard
and lodged in the
brain and then
imitated by it.
• At death, we leave
behind genes and
memes though the
genes will quickly
be dispersed.
• DNA survival
brings about the
body and
individual
consciousness
creates culture.
• This is the soul.
• As Dawkins presents it,
everything is developed
through a natural
process.
• There is no injection of
self or soul from
outside; no need (as
Plato had thought) to
suggest a pre-existence
in order to explain our
knowledge.
• Read pages 147 and
148 from
OCR Edition
Jordan, Lockyer and
Tate
• Answer in written form
all 4 “Something to
think about” from
these pages for next
lesson.