BMJ  2006;332:1294 (3 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7553.1294-e

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Morals, memes, and gerin oil

BMJ

Darwinist Richard Dawkins' latest book, The God Delusion, is out soon. Balaji Ravichandran asks how he keeps his faith in science and reason

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Richard Dawkins is a zoologist—an ethologist, to be precise—who tries to understand animal behaviour. He is also the first professor of public understanding of science at Oxford University, a position he has held since 1995. He wants to inspire people to see the poetry in science, the way Carl Sagan did, and sees his opposition to religion as an integral part of his job.

 

I visited him at his home in Oxford to learn more about his work in promoting public understanding of science, to understand his views on biomedical issues, and to discover why he is so opposed to the influence of religion on society.

"Doctors, in my opinion, are a bit undereducated in Darwinism," he lamented, when I told him that I was a medical student working for the BMJ.

He doesn't suggest that doctors should study comparative anatomy or evolution. But he thinks they should take . . . [Full text of this article]

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