Dawkins' GOD: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life

1. The Selfish Gene: A Darwinian View of the World.

Introducing Dawkins.

The new approach: Charles Darwin.

The mechanics of inheritance: Mendel and genetics.

The discovery of the gene.

The role of DNA in genetics.

Dawkins’ approach: the selfish gene.

River out of Eden: Exploring a Darwinian world.

2. The Blind Watchmaker: Evolution and the Elimination of God?.

Natural science leads to neither atheism nor Christianity.

God as an explanatory hypothesis.

The case of William Paley.

The religious views of Charles Darwin.

The Christian reaction to Darwin.

3. Proof and Faith: The Place of Evidence in Science and Religion.

Faith as blind trust?.

Is atheism itself a faith?.

Christian faith as irrational?.

The problem of radical theory change in science.

The rhetorical amplification of the case for atheism.

4. Cultural Darwinism? The Curious “Science” of Memetics.

The origins of the meme.

Is cultural development Darwinian?.

Do memes actually exist?.

The flawed analogy between meme and gene.

The redundancy of the meme.

God as a virus?.

5. Science and Religion: Dialogue or Intellectual Appeasement?.

The “warfare” of science and religion.

The poky little medieval universe of religion.

The concept of awe.

The mind of God.

Mystery, insanity and nonsense.

Conclusion.

Acknowledgements.

Notes.

Works Consulted.

Index