Clinton Richard Dawkins was born on 26 March 1941, in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa, of English descent. Richard is a writer and evolutionary biologist, best known for various books on evolution including “The Selfish Gene”. He is also credited with coining the term “meme” and has notably published books with views on religion and creationism. His efforts have helped raise his net worth to where it is now.
How rich is Richard Dawkins? As of early-2016, sources estimate a net worth that is at $135 million, mostly accumulated from various achievements in education, publications, television appearances and documentaries. He’s been well known since the 1970s and his continued work has ensured the rise of his wealth.
Richard Dawkins Net Worth $135 Million
Dawkins was brought up in a family that was very interested in the sciences. He believed creationism until he was shown the theory of evolution which changed his perspective on life. He attended Oundle School and then studied at and graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with a degree in Zoology. There, he continued his studies under the tutelage of Nobel Prize winner Nikolaas Tinbergen, eventually earning his master’s and then his PhD. After school, Richard pursued a teaching career, becoming an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley. During his time there, he became involved in anti-Vietnam War activities. In 1970, he became a fellow of New College, Oxford, eventually becoming an emeritus fellow. He became well known for his lectures, such as the “Erasmus Darwin Memorial Lecture” and the “Tanner Lectures”. His popularity even gave him the chance to judge events such as the “British Academy Television Awards”.
Aside from his educational career, Dawkins most notable work has been in evolutionary biology, where his main idea is that the gene is the main unit of evolution. He became widely known after publishing “The Selfish Gene” in 1976, which first noted genes as the focus. In 1982 he published another book – “The Extended Phenotype”. Richard’s work has been noted in various publications, though some of them he remains highly critical of, especially when his ideas become misunderstood in the context of other ideas. He released another book entitled “The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution”, which was lined in time with the Darwin bicentennial year. According to him, Darwinism is one of the reasons why he is amazed at the complexity of life.
“The Selfish Gene” is the book in which Richard first used the term “meme”, Dawkins explains it as any cultural entity that may replicate an idea or set of ideas. While he was the first to coin the term, the idea itself was already existent in other publications before his.
Dawkins has been very critical of creationism and religion, writing several books against it and even creating a foundation called the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. The foundation focuses on the research of the psychology of religion and belief. His most popular work against religion is the book “The God Delusion” which was released in 2006. His viewpoints have been both praised and criticised, with some scientists defending his points of view and others saying that Richard’s words are more of a personal assertion than productive criticism.
For his personal life, it is known that Richard has been married three times. His first marriage was to ethologist Marian Stamp which lasted from 1967 to 1984. His second marriage was to Eve Barham in 1984 – they have a daughter, but divorced in 1992, and Dawkins married actress Lalla Ward the same year, who he met at a production of “Doctor Who”. Richard declares himself an atheist and credits Charles Darwin as the reason for his renewed viewpoint on the explanation and complexity of life.
Royal Society of Literature award and a Los Angeles Times Literary Prize (1987), Sci. Tech Prize for Best Television Documentary Science Programme, The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow (2002), Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest (2009), Freedom From Religion Foundation's Honora...
Nominations
Goodreads Choice Awards Best Nonfiction
Movies
Faith School Menace?, The Genius of Charles Darwin, The Enemies of Reason, The Root of All Evil?, Break the Science Barrier, The Future is Now!, The Four Horsemen
TV Shows
Inside Nature's Giants
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Trademark
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High pitched voice
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Posh English accent
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Wears neck ties with animal designs on them
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Grey hair, brown eyes, and glasses
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Quote
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[responding to criticism from Ben Affleck] Mr Affleck, who I understand is Batman...
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[on "The Big Debate" with Jonathan Dimbleby] The penalty for apostasy in the Christian religion is not death, there is no penalty for apostasy at all in the Christian religion.
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Well, what if I'm wrong? I mean, anybody could be wrong. We could all be wrong about the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Pink Unicorn and the Flying Teapot. You happened to have been brought up, I would presume, in the Christian Faith. You know what it's like not to believe in a particular Faith because you're not a Muslim, you're not a Hindu. Why aren't you a Hindu? Because you happened to have been brought up in America, not in India. If you'd been brought up in India, you'd be a Hindu. If you were brought up in Denmark in the time of the Vikings, you'd be believing in Wotan and Thor. If you were brought up in Classical Greece, you'd be believing in Zeus. If you were brought up in Central Africa, you'd be believing in the Great Ju-Ju up the Mountain. There's no particular reason to pick on the Judeo-Christian God, in which by the sheerest accident you happen to have been brought up, and ask me the question "What if I'm wrong?". What if you're wrong about the Great Ju-Ju at the Bottom of the Sea? [Thunderous applause]
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[on the belief in a God] There are all sorts of things we can't be sure of - we can't be sure there are no leprechauns and fairies. Science in the future is going to be revealing all sorts of things which we have no idea of at present, but it's extremely unlikely that it would happen to home in on an idea from a Bronze Age tribe in the desert.
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'A' believes in fairies. 'B' believes in winged horses. Criticise 'A' and you're rational. Criticise 'B' and you're a bigoted racist Islamophobe.
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Mehdi Hasan admits to believing Muhammad flew to heaven on a winged horse. And New Statesman sees fit to print him as a serious journalist.
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Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.
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Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was the only book I've ever read where I turned back to page one and read it all the way through again. I felt there was so much more I could get out of it.
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I've always thought of Douglas (Douglas Adams) more as a writer of "science comedy", comedy of a sophisticated, scientific kind, than as a writer of science fiction. I'm not an aficionado of science fiction, although the genre has some value in teaching science and stretching the scientific imagination. But so many of Douglas's jokes are scientific jokes, and you don't get them unless you know the science. The first thing you notice about his writing is the verbal repartee. When I read Dirk Gently, every sentence had me laughing. It's fascinating, because it's a mixture of science fiction, comedy, ghost story, detective story, even a certain amount of literary scholarship. Douglas read English Literature at Cambridge and the set-piece about academic life in Dirk Gently is gorgeous.
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[Refuting Paley's "Watchmaker Analogy", which is often used as a defense of Creationism] Of all the trillions of trillions of ways of putting together the parts of a body, only an infinitesimal minority would live, seek food, eat, and reproduce. True, there are many different ways of being alive - at least ten million different ways if we count the number of distinct species alive today - but, however many ways there may be of being alive, it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead! We can safely conclude that living bodies are billions of times too complicated - too statistically improbable - to have come into being by sheer chance. How, then, did they come into being? The answer is that chance enters into the story, but not a single, monolithic act of chance. Instead, a whole series of tiny chance steps, each one small enough to be a believable product of its predecessor, occurred one after the other in sequence. These small steps of chance are caused by genetic mutations, random changes - mistakes really - in the genetic material. They give rise to changes in the existing bodily structure.
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I shall argue that a predominant quality to be expected in a successful gene is ruthless selfishness. This gene selfishness will usually give rise to selfishness in individual behavior. However, as we shall see, there are special circumstances in which a gene can achieve its own selfish goals best by fostering a limited form of altruism at the level of individual animals. 'Special' and 'limited' are important words in the last sentence. Much as we might wish to believe otherwise, universal love and the welfare of the species as a whole are concepts that simply do not make evolutionary sense. This brings me to the first point I want to make about what [The Selfish Gene] is not. I am not advocating a morality based on evolution. I am saying how things have evolved. I am not saying how we humans morally ought to behave. I stress this, because I know I am in danger of being misunderstood by those people, all too numerous, who cannot distinguish a statement of belief in what is the case from an advocacy of what ought to be the case. My own feeling is that a human society based simply on the gene's law of universal ruthless selfishness would be a very nasty society in which to live. But unfortunately, however much we may deplore something, it does not stop it being true. This book is mainly intended to be interesting, but if you would extract a moral from it, read it as a warning. Be warned that if you wish, as I do, to build a society in which individuals cooperate generously and unselfishly towards a common good, you can expect little help from biological nature. Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to, because we may then at least have the chance to upset their designs, something that no other species has ever aspired to.
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Fact
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Was a good friend and fan of Douglas Adams. There is a character in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy called Oolon Colluphid, a writer of controversial books such as "Where God went wrong", "Some more of God's greatest Mistakes", "Who is this God person anyway?" and "Well, that just about wraps it up for God.".
2
Coined the term "meme" in his book "The Selfish Gene" (1976).
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Richard Dawkins is portrayed in the South Park Episode "Go, God, go XII" as a hero in the future for discovering, through his affair with "Miss" Garrison, that "it's not enough to be an Atheist, you have to be a dick about it to everyone who doesn't agree with you." In real life Richard Dawkins gave a presentation at the National Secular Society Conference in London in 2012, on how to discuss one's atheism with people. He ended his presentation with a slide that read "Don't be a dick".
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Author of "The Blind watchmaker" and other books that often debunk religious ideas and explore evolution.
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He holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.
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His wife, the former actress Lalla Ward (The Hon. Mrs. Dawkins), is now an illustrator and illustrates his books.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Faith School Menace?
2010
TV Movie documentary writer
The Genius of Charles Darwin
2008
TV Series documentary writer
Discussions with Richard Dawkins, Episode 1: The Four Horsemen
2008
Video documentary writer
The Enemies of Reason
2007
TV Movie documentary
Root of All Evil?
2006
TV Movie documentary writer
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
Synonymy
2014
Video Game
Narrator
The Simpsons
2013
TV Series
Richard Dawkins
The Future Is Now!
2011
The Scientist
Doctor Who
2008
TV Series
Richard Dawkins
Producer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Discussions with Richard Dawkins, Episode 1: The Four Horsemen
2008
Video documentary producer
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
SimLife
1992
Video Game inspirational thanks - as Dr. Richard Dawkins
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Godless: The Truth Beyond Belief
2017
Documentary pre-production
Year Without God
Documentary post-production
Himself
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
2016
TV Series documentary
Guest
Nightwish: Live at Wembley Arena
2016
Video
Himself
Órbita Laika: La Nueva Generación
2016
TV Series
Himself - Interviewee
Beware the Slenderman
2016
Documentary
Himself - Evolutionary Biologist
Skavlan
2012-2015
TV Series
Himself - Guest
The Daily Show
2013-2015
TV Series
Himself
Real Time with Bill Maher
2008-2015
TV Series
Himself / Himself - Guest / Himself - Author, 'An Appetite for Wonder'
StarTalk
2015
TV Series
Himself
Newsnight
2015
TV Series
Himself
Breath of Life
2014
Documentary
Himself
McKenna
2014
TV Series
Himself
Speciesism: The Movie
2013
Documentary
Himself
The Hour
2013
TV Series
Himself
The Agenda with Steve Paikin
2013
TV Series
Himself
The Morning Show
2013
TV Series
Himself
The Unbelievers
2013
Documentary
Himself
Saturn's Embrace
2012
Documentary
Himself
Dawkins: Sex, Death and the Meaning of Life
2012
TV Series
Himself - Presenter
A Virus Called Fear
2012
Documentary short
Himself
Beautiful Minds
2012
TV Series documentary
Himself
Q&A
2010-2012
TV Series
Himself - Panelist / Himself - Panellist
Making Magic Happen
2012
Documentary
Himself - Scientist
The Big Questions
2007-2012
TV Series
Himself
Brave New World with Stephen Hawking
2011
TV Series
Himself
The O'Reilly Factor
2011
TV Series
Himself
Kreuz & Quer
2011
TV Series documentary
Himself - Evolutionsbiologe
Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words
2011
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself
Godless
2011
TV Series documentary
The Reality of Me (TROM)
2011
Documentary
Himself
The Nature of Existence Companion Series
2011
Video documentary
Himself
The Nature of Existence
2010
Documentary
Faith School Menace?
2010
TV Movie documentary
Himself - Presenter
Genius of Britain: The Scientists Who Changed the World
2010
TV Series documentary
Himself - Presenter
Nerdstock: Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People
2010
TV Movie
Himself
In Confidence
2010
TV Series documentary
Himself
Sex, Drugs & Religion
2010
Documentary
Himself
The Late Late Show
2009
TV Series
Himself
Late Review
2009
TV Series
Himself - Panelist
Dawkins vs Lennox: Has Science Buried God?
2009
Video documentary
Himself
Christianity: A History
2009
TV Series documentary
Himself - Author 'The God Delusion'
Horizon
1986-2008
TV Series documentary
Himself / Himself - University of Oxford / Himself - Presenter
The Genius of Charles Darwin
2008
TV Series documentary
Richard Dawkins
Elders
2008
TV Series documentary
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
2008
Documentary
Himself
Discussions with Richard Dawkins, Episode 1: The Four Horsemen
2008
Video documentary
Himself
Hitchens vs Lennox: Can Atheism Save Europe?
2008
Video documentary
Himself - audience member
The God Delusion Debate
2007
Video documentary
Himself (as Professor Richard Dawkins)
Die Johannes B. Kerner Show
2007
TV Series
Himself
The Late Edition
2007
TV Series
Himself
The Enemies of Reason
2007
TV Movie documentary
Himself
HARDtalk
2007
TV Series
Himself
TEDTalks
2006-2007
TV Series
Himself
The Trouble with Atheism
2006
TV Movie documentary
Himself
The Colbert Report
2006
TV Series
Himself
Jonathan Dimbleby
2006
TV Series
Himself
Root of All Evil?
2006
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Tsunami: Where Was God?
2005
TV Movie documentary
Himself - University of Oxford
Charlie Rose
2005
TV Series
Himself
The Al Franken Show
2005
TV Series
Himself
Miracle Planet
2005
TV Series documentary
Himself - Oxford University
Now
2004
TV Series documentary
Himself
The Atheism Tapes
2004
TV Series documentary
Himself
Brief History of Disbelief
2004
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself - Biologist
Double Helix: The DNA Years
2004
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Three Tales
2002
Himself
Understanding
2002
TV Series
Himself - Author
The Richard Dimbleby Lecture
1996
TV Series documentary
Himself
The Brains Trust
1996
TV Series
Himself
Network First
1995
TV Series documentary
Himself
The South Bank Show
1992
TV Series documentary
Himself
The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
1991-1992
TV Series documentary
Himself - Presenter
Growing Up in the Universe
1991
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself - Host
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Atheist Delusion
2016
Video documentary
Himself
Professing Themselves to Be Wise
2016
Video documentary
Himself
The Drunken Peasants
2014-2016
TV Series
Himself
Patterns of Evidence: Exodus
2014
Documentary
Himself (uncredited)
The Hitch
2014
Documentary
Himself
Creation Today
2014
TV Series
Himself
Creation and the Last Days
2014
Video
Himself (uncredited)
The Comfort Zone
2013
TV Series
Himself
The O'Reilly Factor
2012-2013
TV Series
Himself
Lawrence Leung's Unbelievable
2011
TV Series
Himself
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
2011
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself
The End of God? A Horizon Guide to Science and Religion
2010
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Evidence of God with Eric Hovind
2010
TV Mini-Series
Himself
The Bible: A History
2010
TV Series documentary
Himself
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom
2007
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself (as Professor Richard Dawkins)
Known for movies
Beware the Slenderman (2016) as Himself - Evolutionary Biologist
Nerdstock: Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People (2010) as Himself
Órbita Laika: La Nueva Generación (2016) as Himself - Interviewee