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 A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love :: 0618485392
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| Richard Dawkins has an opinion on everything biological, it seems, and in A Devil's Chaplain, everything is biological. Dawkins weighs in on topics as diverse as ape rights, jury trials, religion, and education, all examined through the lens of natural selection and evolution. Although many of these essays have been published elsewhere, this book is something of a greatest-hits compilation, reprinting many of Dawkins' most famous recent compositions. They are well worth re-reading. His 1998 review of Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont's Fashionable Nonsense is as bracing an indictment of academic obscurantism as the book it covered, although the review reveals some of Dawkins' personal biases as well. Several essays are devoted to skillfully debunking religion and mysticism, and these are likely to raise the hackles of even casual believers. Science, and more specifically evolutionary science, underlies each essay, giving readers a glimpse into the last several years' debates about the minutiae of natural selection. In one moving piece, Dawkins reflects on his late rival Stephen Jay Gould's magnum opus, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, and clarifies what it was the two Darwinist heavyweights actually disagreed about. While the collection showcases Dawkins' brilliance and intellectual sparkle, it brings up as many questions as it answers. As an ever-ardent champion of science, honest discourse, and rational debate, Dawkins will obviously relish the challenge of answering them. --Therese Littleton Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
I would like to see Richard Dawkins placed in a room with biblical creationists. I imagine there would soon be a fistfight.
In this series of articles Dawkins covers a range of themes, from his atheist beliefs to aspects of evolutionary biology. Unfortunately his atheism becomes so dogmatic in many parts it overwhelms his attempts to communicate science and his atheological agenda becomes tiresome. This is not one of Dawkin's better attempts at writing, arguing against the existence of God, or communicating science. This is probably one for the fans.
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Author: Guest
Richard Dawkins is one of the most influential and controversial essayists of today. A renowned evolutionary biologist, he currently holds the Charles Simonyi Chair at Oxford University. In his book A Devils Champlain he brings together 25 years and some of his best and most polemic essays (some previously unpublished) with subjects dealing with everything from love to evolution.
He employs his analytical passion to raise some mind-blowing questions and does not back down from challenging what many people consider as fundamental truths. He analyzes very intricate topics and situations through a scientific lens and is able to do it with clarity and simplicity. Although he has been criticized for some strong anti-religions standpoints and instances were his bias affects his writing; I believe that his work, even if you don't agree with it, is worth reading for he definitely makes some very valid points.
I believe Richard Dawkins is one of the elite essayist because of his ability to take on such complex beliefs, brake it down systematically and with the use of some philosophy prove his point; all while keeping a clear and simple style. He displays mastery in several subjects including, but not restricted to physics, biology and philosophy.
This book is divided into seven sections, each with a preamble. These sections are themselves made up of short and varied articles enabling reader is also able to jump from section to section and read different pieces since the order is not overly central. This complemented by his concise style making for a very easy read.
This book is not only a great read but it could change the way you think about some of the most basic things in you're life and will force you to re-analyze several aspects of today's society. I trust that this book made me a more knowledgeable person and taught me to question everything, extending to the things society considers self evident.
My favorite article titled "Trial by Jury" scientifically analyzes the system of trial by jury. This is a system in which the vast majority of the world ardently believes in, and is regarded as the closest humanly possible method of reaching justice. Growing up in America I was a firm believer that it was the ultimate system but after having read the article, in which Dawkins makes some undeniable points against it, I have come to question this system. However, this is the same reaction I had to many of his other articles where he questions things such as truth, religion, and the existence of god.
It is definitely a great introduction to anyone that is interested in Richard Dawkins work. It is one of his more concise pieces in which he reaches concert solutions, and a great prologue to his more intricate and ideological works.
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Author: Guest
This is a great book outlining Dawkins's various ideas on science, religion and philosophy. Those of you who find his other books hard to follow will benefit from this collection of essays and his views on religion are more pronounced.
The most interesting chapter was the `Information Challenge' where Dawkins highlights the deception that Creationists (by this I mean those of the Christian elk. Unfortunately Dawkins puts all creationists under one umbrella...see my review of his other book, `An Ancestor's Tale - A Journey to the Dawn of Life/Evolution). He noted that he was being videoed by this group from Australia and he was asked if he had known of any examples where mutations increased information content. This is a non-question, but the video then shows that he couldn't answer this. I came across this interview in an Islamic video on Evolution vs Creation (note to Muslims: Please do not use Christian Creationist material...they are very unscientific and deceptive). I thought that Dawkins was proven wrong, but after reading the Information Challenge it turns out that his silence wasn't due to lack of an answer but he was deciding whether to throw them out or not because he realised they were creationists. This chapter is in fact an answer to the question that was posed to him by the Aussie group.
His view on religion is a bit complex because I have noted changing opinions (note I will not use the word, `contradictions' because the last time I did that in my review of `An Ancestors Tale' a creationist misquoted me by saying I highlighted contradictions in Dawkins's arguments when I emphatically stated that these may not be contradictions after all but changes in opinion which can happen). Sept 11 had a profound effect on Dawkins and he made a harsh judgement on religion and that it was responsible for the attacks and other problems of the world. He also said somewhere else that religion was a virus of the mind which needed to be eradicated. This is where I have to part ways with Atheists. Misuse of religion, as with any belief system is a virus. But the religion themselves do not teach mass murder and killings of innocents contrary to Dawkins's claims in the chapter, `Viruses of the Mind'. I agree that the `Suicide Mission Virus' is a deadly virus, but the faith which suicide bombers belong to does not demand such actions, it condemns them totally. Those who use religion as a pretext are the ones to blame as they are going against religious edicts. Hell fire will ensure that murderers are given their just desserts which they didn't get in this life. However, in a later chapter, `Time to Stand Up', Dawkins does admit that it isn't necessarily religion per se that causes murder but it is a label that is used by these murderers. Dawkins did admit that he was a bit too harsh on his claims just after 9/11. I did send him a DVD on Islam and Terrorism (by Dr. Zakir Naik in the presence of the American Counsel of South India) which should have put to rest any thought that Islam encouraged terrorism. It would be nice to get a reply from Dawkins to see if he has changed his views.
I also enjoyed his chapter, `Snake Oil'. It puts to rest any notion that `Alternative Medicine' has beneficial effects compared to Orthodox Medicine. He does successfully expose the quacks who practice them. I agree with Dawkins that Medicine is Medicine. Period. There is no such thing as `Alternative' Medicine.
There are other chapters which the reader will find of great interest. I would recommend this book for those who are new to Dawkins's ideas and before venturing into his other works which are more scientifically detailed.
Hasan Ali Imam
(Ex-Parliamentary Candidate, Conservative Party)
London
UK
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Author: Guest
This book shows Dawkins' brilliant intellect on many topics. Admitidly, there are some points in the book that drag on a bit if you are not particularly interested in the topic at hand, but for the most part the short essays and writings in this book are highly valuable and revealing. Most especially to me was the letter to his daughter about good and bad reasons to believe.
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Author: Guest
Richard Dawkins is a world-class evolutionary biologist and one of the best popular science writers working today. His "The Blind Watchmaker" is, I think, the best layman's book on natural selection ever written; I re-read it every few years just to enjoy the clarity of his style. "A Devil's Chaplain," then, is a book I really wanted to like.
I understood walking out of the bookstore that "Chaplain" would not, in the main, be about evolutionary biology. And I have seen enough examples of scientists -- brilliant within their own areas of expertise -- who write commonplaces or even twaddle when off their home turf.
That caution did not prepare me for the spectacle of Dawkins's plunge into unselfconscious dogmatism and graceless bile in large sections of this book.
Portions of "A Devil's Chaplain" dealing with evolutionary biology are quite good. Sections dealing with "memes" are less satisfactory. I actually finished Dawkins's first essay on memes _less_ convinced that they are a viable analog to genes than when I went in. In particular, Dawkins's postlog on why science is not a meme was unconvincing, weak argumentation at best, hand-waving at worst.
Dawkins's opinions on social institutions and politics recall William F. Buckley's quip that it would be preferable to be ruled by citizens drawn randomly from the Boston telephone book than by the members of Harvard's faculty. Dawkins's disparagement of the concept of trial by jury (in favor of `more rational' trial by judge) misses the point of that institution in a particularly elephantine way. His viewpoint is elitist in a distinctively cozy, English, university-don manner. Dawkins seems so nauseated at the thought that some gaggle of dimwitted proles might sit in judgement of _him_ that he is oblivious to the notion that an individual judge -- albeit a credentialed professional and Dr. D's intellectual equal (more or less) -- might treat him unfairly.
And some of the notions Dawkins advances are just loopy. For instance, at one point he imagines being in the presence of a genetically-engineered approximation of an australopithecene and "tearfully taking her hand in mine" -- as if the hominid in question were an actual australopithecene, not a laboratory-made chimera, and as if the poor creature were capable of understanding his emotion, let alone reciprocating it.
"A Devil's Chaplain" is an instant classic, but not of any sort that Richard Dawkins could have intended. With it, he joins the list of brilliant specialists who missed their opportunity to leave intact the assumption that they were sages in a broad way, instead of solely in their fields of specialization.
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