A scientist who received much attention in the British press for debating the Archbishop of York on the relevance of religion in a scientific age spoke Monday night at Grand Valley's Louis Armstrong Theater.
Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist and author of numerous best selling books on topics related to Darwinism, was invited by the Science and Mathematics Division.
Dawkins is currently on a promotional tour for his sixth book, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder, published in 1998 by Houghton Miflin. Dawkins' speech at GVSU bears the same title.
In Unweaving the Rainbow Dawkins rejects the notion that scientists diminish the beauty of natural phenomena by explaining them. The book's title comes from English poet John Keats, who complained that Sir Isaac Newton would unweave the rainbow by reducing it to its prismatic colors. Mysteries don't lose their poetry because they are solved, the book's jacket asserts. The solution often is more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering a deeper mystery.
Dawkins, 58, has gained notoriety for writing and speaking about science in a way that connects with the general public. He was featured in the September 9, 1996 New Yorker. He is a professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, where he has taught since 1995. In his numerous books and lectures, his recurring theme is that the ultimate function of human life is simply to pass DNA on to future generations. He invites his readers and audiences to explore the power, beauty and mystery behind a Darwinian understanding of life.
Dawkins' earlier books include River Out of Eden (1995), which held the number one position in the British non-fiction best seller list in 1995. The Selfish Gene (1976), The Blind Watchmaker (1986) and Climbing Mount Improbable (1996) were all best sellers in their time as well.
