If you haven’t previously encountered Richard Dawkins, now’s the perfect opportunity to meet this celebrated English evolutionary biologist. Widely considered one of the Four Atheists of the Apocalypse, Dawkins topped the 2004 Prospect magazine poll of leading British public intellectuals and, more recently, its 2013 ranking of “world thinkers.” He’ll be at the Harper-Collins booth (2038) today, 1:30–2:30, likely engaged in lively debate—and discussing his first memoir, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist (Ecco, Oct.).
According to the publisher, Appetite revisits Dawkins’s formative life experiences—from his birth in colonial Kenya through his education at Oxford—that led to his becoming one of the world’s foremost authorities on evolution and biggest critics of religion. Dawkins has written many notable books on science and religion—including The Selfish Gene (1976), The Blind Watchmaker (1986), and The God Delusion (2006)—espousing a gene-centered view of evolution and a willingness to criticize religion and its dogma.
What connects these positions is Dawkins’s advocacy of empirical, evidence-based thinking to counter faith-based belief (that is, belief without supporting evidence). Dawkins continues to be a controversial yet inspiring figure: coining the concept of the “meme,” sparring with fellow scientists over fine points of natural selection, proclaiming faith one of the “world’s great evils,” and establishing a foundation in support of reason and science. Regardless of one’s feelings about him, his public pronouncements attract great attention and he never fails to speak what’s on his mind.
