A Devil's Chaplain
Year published: 2003
Publisher: Weidenfeld
ISBN: 0-75381-750-0
'What a book a Devil's Chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horridly cruel works of nature.'
DARWIN IN A LETTER TO HIS FRIEND, HOOKER, 1856
'A process of trial and error, completely unplanned and on the massive scale of natural selection, can be expected to be clumsy, wasteful and blundering. Of waste there is no doubt ... the racing elegance of cheetahs and gazelles is bought at a huge cost in blood and the suffering of countless antecedents on both sides. Clumsy and blundering though the process undoubtedly is, its results are opposite. There is nothing clumsy about a swallow, nothing blundering about a shark. What is clumsy and blundering ... is the Darwinian algorithm that led to their evolution.'
FROM THE FIRST ESSAY IN THIS BOOK.
Other essays range from Gay Genes to Catholic Memes, from Crystalline Truth to Crystal Balls, from a lament for the author's friend Douglas Adams to a respectful exchange with his supposed foe Stephen Jay Gould, from a skewering of Postmodernism to an African pilgrimage seeking heroes and ancestors.
1.1 A Devil's Chaplain 10
1.2 What is True? 17
1.3 Gaps in the Mind 23
1.4 Science, Genetics and Ethics: Memo for Tony Blair 31
1.5 Trial By Jury 44
1.6 Crystalline Truth and Crystal Balls 49
1.7 Postmodernism Disrobed 55
1.8 The Joy of Living Dangerously: Sanderson of Oundle 63
2 Light Will Be Thrown 71
2.1 Light Will Be Thrown 73
2.2 Darwin Triumphant 91
2.3 The 'Information Challenge' 107
2.4 Genes Aren't Us 123
2.5 Son of Moore's Law 127
3.1 Chinese Junk and Chinese Whispers 140
3.2 Viruses of the Mind 151
3.3 The Great Convergence 173
3.4 Dolly and the Cloth Heads 180
3.5 Time to Stand Up 184
4.1 Lament for Douglas 193
4.2 Eulogy for Douglas Adams 196
4.3 Eulogy for W. D. Hamilton 200
4.4 Snake Oil 209
5.1 Rejoicing in Multifarious Nature 222
5.2 The Art of the Developable 227
5.3 Hallucigenia, Wiwaxia and Friends 238
5.4 Human Chauvinism and Evolutionary Progress 242
5.5 Unfinished Correspondence with a Darwinian Heavyweight 256
6.1 Ecology of Genes 265
6.2 Out of the Soul of Africa 268
6.3 I Speak of Africa and Golden Joys 271
6.4 Heroes and Ancestors 275
7 A Prayer for My Daughter 283
7.1 Good and Bad Reasons for Believing 284
'Professor Dawkins is one of the world's most engaging and challenging science writers ... he brings beautiful clarity to the most difficult scientific concepts yet does so in a style akin to that of fine literature' Irish Times
'Above all is his moral commitment to evidence based science and his sense of wonder at the world which such scientific endeavour opens up' Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford, Independent
'This is the best book of sermons I have read for years. So please do go on preaching to us, Reverend Dawkins, and don't mind the things they throw at you' Richard Holloway, Bishop of Edinburgh, Guardian
'Whatever his topic Dawkins is always eloquent, passionate and persuasive. The man is a national treasure' Charles Fernyhough, Scotland on Sunday
'In attacking the pretensions of crystal gazers, homeopathists, creationists, relativists, obfuscators and cheats he is scimitar-like, lopping heads from narrow shoulders at a blow ... a joy to read' A. C. Grayling, Literary Review
'[Dawkins] possesses a rapier wit and a keen analytic mind ... It is especially touching to read his comments on his fallen adversary, .Stephen Jay Gould' Niles Eldredge
'This highly readable collection of essays exhibits Richard Dawkins' characteristic qualities of clarity and passion. Above all his moral commitment to evidence-based science and his sense of wonder at the world which such scientific endeavour opens up. A series of brilliant analogies renders most of the science accessible to the non-specialist' Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford, Independent magazine
'Dawkins' optimism is a shot in the arm, and his genius for hatching mind-boggling possibilities out of the air provokes wonder' Professor John Carey, Sunday Times
'Dawkins is the pre-eminent evolutionary biologist of our time ... He is quick to engage in debate and a ferocious opponent of pseudo-scientists, religious zealots and woolly thinkers' Christopher Lambton, Scotsman
'Dawkins' writing is pleasing because it makes you think that you had thought of the arguments yourself ... A Devil's Chaplain is intelligent, witty, forceful and at all turns a pleasure to read' Professor Mark Pagel, New Humanist
'Richard Dawkins is a national treasure, secure in his expertise and unlikely to frighten the children' Geoff Simons, Morning Star
'Dawkins here offers a gracious tribute to [Stephen Jay] Gould, but also turns his incisive analytical mind and lucid prose against Gould's ideas with devastating effect' Professor Jerry Coyne, Nature
'... a delight, and not least because the juxtaposition of unlike pieces is a reminder of Dawkins's versatility as well as of his courage and imagination' Sir John Maddox, Times Literary Supplement
'Science as a source of joy shines through these pages ... the lucidness of his vision is extraordinary. If only more keen minds could likewise reach out to provoke and inspire' Claire Fogg, Time Out
'It's comforting to know that Dawkins, the class-act evolutionary biologist, is still about, whipping irrationalists of all stripes' GQ 'Perhaps the most poignant section of A Devil's Chaplain is a collection of essays and reviews about the late Stephen Jay Gould, the only other modern biologist of comparable public stature' Kenan Malik, Sunday Telegraph
'Dawkins may be a supremely gifted exponent of natural history, but he is also an intellectual pugilist of unyielding vigour' Robin McKie, Observer
'Richard Dawkins loves fighting. More precisely, he loves winning. To be Dawkinsed ... is not just to be dressed down or duffed up: it is to be squelched, pulverised, annihilated, rendered into suitably primordial paste. Those who incur this treatment have one thing in common: all are enemies of truth' Robert Macfarlane, Spectator