Richard Dawkins
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Evolutionary biologist skeptical of genetic group selection
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Claims by Richard Dawkins (20 of 117)
Brexit Referendum Was Based on No Information
Complex issues like leaving the European Union require great economic sophistication and should not be decided by referendum; the original Brexit vote was based on no proper information, and a second referendum—now that people know what Brexit will actually be like—would plausibly reverse the outcome, with polls suggesting Remain would win.
Genome as Genetic Book of the Dead
The genes of a species constitute a coded document describing the ancestral worlds in which ancestors survived—a 'genetic book of the dead'—because the genome is a filtered subset of genes that helped ancestors survive, such that in principle a future geneticist could read off descriptions of past environments (e.g., aquatic versus desert) from an animal's genome or body.
Aging Results from Descent from Young Ancestors
We age because we are descended from ancestors who mostly reproduced when young, so whatever made an organism successful when young was selected for even if it made the organism more likely to die later—exemplified by sexually selected traits like bright male coloration that attracts both mates and predators.
Sperm Donation Reveals Rules of Thumb
A rigorous gene's-eye view implies a man's most fulfilling act would be donating sperm to a bank to father thousands of children at no cost, yet the fact that sperm donors must be paid shows natural selection cannot build awareness of what genes 'want'—it only installs rules of thumb (like the desire for sex) that worked under ancestral conditions but fail to track modern technologies.
Human Society Has Left Natural Selection Behind
Much of human life—running governments, democracies, capitalism, pursuing science, building technology—is parasitic on cognitive traits that evolved for survival under wild African conditions, but evolution cannot 'see' these high-level details, so what counts as success in modern society has largely left natural selection behind.
Evolution Modifies Existing Structures Incrementally
Complex adaptations like a bat's wing could not evolve de novo; evolution must modify what already exists incrementally, each step conferring useful advantage—e.g., a bat wing is a hand with membrane left unculled by the embryonic sculpting that normally removes inter-finger webbing, and 'half a wing' is useful because any increase in air-presenting surface lets arboreal animals leap farther.
Animal Signaling Is a Network of Extended Phenotypes
All animal communication—bird song, crests, flashes, conspicuous signals—can be understood as a great network of extended phenotypes in which a gene in one animal has a phenotypic effect on another animal's behavior, just as cuckoos manipulate host reed warblers via supernormal gape stimuli.
Parasites Manipulate Hosts as Extended Phenotype
Parasites manipulate host behavior as an extended phenotype of parasite genes—e.g., a brain worm makes an ant climb grass stems in daytime heat to be eaten by sheep, and rabies makes a dog more likely to bite, froth, and roam—because genes that alter host behavior to aid transmission are selected, with the manipulation produced via the parasite's own embryology.
Religion Is Not an Extended Phenotype
Religion should not be considered an extended phenotype because the extended phenotype requires a genetic effect under genetic control, and there is no gene that makes an architect build Gothic rather than Romanesque arches, nor any evidence that variation in religious habits is under genetic control—so mere survival-dependence on culture is insufficient to qualify as an extended phenotype.
Religions as Meme Complexes
A religion like Roman Catholicism can be regarded as a meme complex (memeplex), where individual memes—life after death, confession, the virgin birth—flourish in each other's presence just as gene complexes are sets of mutually compatible genes that thrive together, sharing a common fate.
Perception Is an Internal Model Updated by Senses
Everything we perceive is an internal model constructed by the brain and updated by sense data, as illustrated by ambiguous figures like Necker cubes where a single retinal image is compatible with two alternative internal models, forcing the perceiver to alternate between them.
Anesthetic That Erases Pain Memory Thought Experiment
A thought experiment about an anesthetic that doesn't block pain during surgery but only erases the memory of it opens onto the paradox of personal identity: if you forget the suffering completely, then arguably you are no more suffering than when you contemplate someone else being tortured, since whether you remain the same person who suffered depends on psychological continuity.
Tribalism Drives Belief Over Evidence
In the current environment people believe things not because they have seen the evidence but because their tribe believes them, and counterproductive tactics by 'our side'—like deplatforming people for 'Islamophobia'—feed into the visceral hatred that motivates the opposing tribe, making us our own worst enemies and risking continued populism.
Homeopathy Cannot Work in Principle
Homeopathy not only doesn't work but cannot work because its dilutions are so extreme—the most 'effective' dose, by James Randi's calculation, would contain one molecule in a volume of water equal to the volume of the solar system—so selling it mingled among real remedies under labels like 'cough' or 'flu' is misleading and warrants legal action.
Group Selection Reframed as Ecological Competition
Dawkins is skeptical of group selection; he prefers to reframe Darwin's suggestion that cohesive cooperative human groups outcompete others as a form of species-like ecological competition—analogous to the gray squirrel driving the red squirrel extinct—where, for example, a militaristic religion rewarding martyrs might spread as a group/ecological effect rather than via true group selection.
Mutation Need Not Be Random for Selection
Natural selection of memes works even though meme mutation is engineered rather than random, because what matters is not randomness but that there is variation, competition, and differential success; genetic mutation is random only in the sense that it is not directed toward improvement, not that it is uncaused.
Epigenetic Inheritance Is Overhyped
The term epigenetics has been hijacked by people with a neo-Lamarckian bent to suggest cytoplasmic gene-expression states get inherited across generations; while a few rare cases (e.g., maternal stress affecting offspring gene expression) do occur, these effects do not persist indefinitely like true genetic mutation and don't deserve the attention they receive.
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