[jijijijij]

"The selfish gene" is one of the most influential books I read. I wish Dawkins would have stuck with biology instead of becoming this insufferable edgelord of the dark enlitenment. He's a great science educator, but failed human.

[InsideOutSanta]

Agree. "The Selfish Gene" finally made me understand how evolution actually works. I wish more people would read and understand that book. I also enjoyed some of his works on atheism. It might not be the deepest work on the topic, but I enjoyed reading "The Blind Watchmaker."

What he has done in the past decade or so, on the other hand, is deeply disappointing.

[jijijijij]

I think, Dawkins' "selfish gene" thesis didn't hold up to evidence ultimately, that is higher order selection targets do seem to matter after all, but the book is still excellent at teaching "thinking evolution", which goes beyond its application in biology. In particular his hypothetical speculations about molecular evolution stuck with me. And the statistical limit of gene complexity/length due to chromosomal crossover. I always had a good, intuitive understanding of biological evolution, but the book's expansion of domain made this concept truly mind opening for me. It's everywhere, it's the most fucking important thing to get a grasp of to understand the world!

I also do enjoy his overly thorough, slightly arrogant way of making an argument. And him talking in general, so the audiobook version read by himself is awesome, too. Dawkins could have been there with Jane Goodall, or Carl Sagan. But he chose his legacy being just another blue checkmarked divisive idiot.

Never meet your heroes... and get a library card and VPN, just in case.