The Dawkins Delusion

Though Richard Dawkins is viewed as an oracle in some quarters, and as an incarnation of the devil in others, neither view is justified, and it would be good for all of us if our various Dawkins delusions were deflated. There can certainly be no gainsaying his enormous talent and prodigious accomplishments. The problem is with the content – and with his calculated rhetoric – which has enriched him while, at the same time, misleading both his acolytes and his enemies.

Let’s start with the “selfish gene” – at once a cunningly clever metaphor and a serious distortion of the evolutionary process. Dawkins became famous for this inspired image (the title of his first book, in 1976), and for his assertion that we are all “robot vehicles” that are “blindly programmed to serve the selfish molecules known as genes.” This reductionist, simplistic view of evolution (which endows DNA with an all-powerful teleology) is, as Winston Churchill once said in a much different context, a “terminological inexactitude.”

In fact, Dawkins himself backpedaled from this provocative caricature even in the recesses of The Selfish Gene. On page 37 he concedes that, of course, the genes are not really free and independent agents: “They collaborate and interact in inextricably complex ways….Building a leg is a multi-gene cooperative enterprise.” To underscore the point, Dawkins employs a rowing metaphor: One oarsman on his own cannot win the Oxford and Cambridge boat race. He needs eight colleagues….Rowing the boat is a cooperative venture” (p.38).

Even more discordant is a remark Dawkins made in a subsequent book, The Blind Watchmaker, where he describes embryonic development and concludes: “We have a picture of teams of genes all evolving toward cooperative solutions to problems….It is the ‘team’ that evolves” (p171). Some would call this “group selection,” though Dawkins officially rejects the idea (more on this below). So Dawkins has always had a tendency to talk out of both sides of his mouth, with all the aplomb of an elected politician.

On one point, though, Dawkins has been consistent – and consistently wrong. On the subject of human nature and the nature of human societies, he remains a “head in the bag” neo-Darwinian (to borrow one of his own terms of opprobrium). He sees evolution as a being predominately a process of relentless, gladiatorial competition among individuals: “I think ‘nature red in tooth and claw’ sums up our modern understanding of natural selection admirably,” he wrote on page two of The Selfish Gene. This applies to human evolution as well. In his paradigm, competition has been the norm, and social life in human societies is derived from “kin selection” – altruism toward close kin that is ultimately self-serving genetically. From this narrow perspective, then, tribalism, nationalism and other group loyalties in humans are a distortion (a hypertrophy in biospeak) of the kin-based social bonds that were the basis of our evolution as a species.

Contrary to this sanguinary view of evolution, it has become increasingly clear during the past decade or so that symbiosis and cooperative relationships are widespread in nature and are also fundamental properties of the natural world. In effect, competition and cooperation share the credit for “progressive” evolutionary changes, at all levels. Dawkins could just as well have titled his famous book The Cooperative Gene (and in fact biologist Mark Ridley did just so in his 2001 book). Moreover, this model has been especially applicable to human evolution, and the shaping of human nature. There is growing support among human evolutionists (across several disciplines) for the view that humankind evolved, over several million years, in closely cooperating groups that included non-kin as well as close relatives and that “group selection” (the differential survival of competing groups) greatly encouraged our proclivities for group solidarity, morality and “coherence,” as Darwin himself put it in The Descent of Man. The flip side of this, of course, is our propensity for xenophobia. It seems the current generation of evolutionary theorists are rediscovering Darwin’s Darwinism.

So, in this light, let’s talk about Dawkins’ latest piece of in flagrante delicto prose -- The God Delusion. A full-scale rebuttal is not possible here, but it boils down to this key point: Blaming religion for the various travesties committed by human groups is like blaming the car for the behavior of the driver. The problem lies in our evolved human nature, not in the excesses that religions sometimes foster and commit. Nor are religious organizations the only culprits in perpetrating group conflicts. Consider the antagonisms that have, historically, swirled around tribalism, ethnic identities, nationalism, ideological cleavages (communists and capitalists), economic interests (e.g., the north and south in the American Civil War), and even soccer matches. Indeed, Dawkins’ all-out assault on religion is a reflection of yet another such cleavage -- the ongoing political conflict between a beleaguered scientific community and the “intelligent design” crowd. So let’s stop blaming the car.

Thought for the day: Personally, I see religion as being double-edged, like so much else in life. Organized religions have perpetrated a great many atrocities historically, but at their best they may also help the poor and afflicted, reinforce moral conduct, provide comfort and solace, and facilitate social relationships and social bonds. As Frank Sinatra put it: “I’m in favor of anything that will get you through the night.”