1.
Richard Dawkins
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Clinton Richard Dawkins FRS FRSL is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is a fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxfords Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Dawkins first came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, in 2006, he founded the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Dawkins is an atheist, and is known for his criticism of creationism. In The Blind Watchmaker, he argues against the watchmaker analogy, instead, he describes evolutionary processes as analogous to a blind watchmaker in that reproduction, mutation, and selection are unguided by any designer. In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and he opposes the teaching of creationism in schools. Dawkins was born in Nairobi, then in British Kenya, on 26 March 1941 and he is the son of Jean Mary Vyvyan and Clinton John Dawkins, who was an agricultural civil servant in the British Colonial Service in Nyasaland. His father was called up into the Kings African Rifles during World War II and returned to England in 1949 and his father had inherited a country estate, Over Norton Park in Oxfordshire, which he farmed commercially. Dawkins considers himself English and lives in Oxford, England, both his parents were interested in natural sciences, and they answered Dawkinss questions in scientific terms. Dawkins describes his childhood as a normal Anglican upbringing, and that left me with nothing. From 1954 to 1959 Dawkins attended Oundle School in Northamptonshire, an English public school with a distinct Church of England flavour, while at Oundle Dawkins read Bertrand Russells Why I Am Not a Christian for the first time. He studied zoology at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1962, while there and he continued as a research student under Tinbergens supervision, receiving his MA and DPhil degrees by 1966, and remained a research assistant for another year. Tinbergen was a pioneer in the study of behaviour, particularly in the areas of instinct, learning and choice. From 1967 to 1969, he was an assistant professor of zoology at the University of California, during this period, the students and faculty at UC Berkeley were largely opposed to the ongoing Vietnam War, and Dawkins became involved in the anti-war demonstrations and activities. He returned to the University of Oxford in 1970 as a lecturer, in 1990, he became a reader in zoology. He held that professorship from 1995 until 2008, since 1970, he has been a fellow of New College, Oxford and he is now an emeritus fellow. In 1991, he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children on Growing Up in the Universe and he has also edited several journals, and has acted as editorial advisor to the Encarta Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia of Evolution. He is listed as an editor and a columnist of the Council for Secular Humanisms Free Inquiry magazine
2.
Humanists UK
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The current President of the BHA is Shappi Khorsandi and the Chief Executive is Andrew Copson. The association currently has 70 affiliated regional and special interest groups, the advancement of education and in particular the study of and the dissemination of knowledge about Humanism and about the arts and science as they relate to Humanism. The promotion of understanding between people holding religious and non-religious beliefs so as to advance cooperation in society. The BHA also wishes to build itself as a sustainable and nationally-recognised organisation as a voice for non-religious people, the British Humanist Association was founded in 1896 by American Stanton Coit as the Union of Ethical Societies, which brought together existing ethical societies in Britain. In 1963 H. J. Blackham became the first Executive Director, and this transition followed a decade of discussions which nearly prompted a merger of the Union of Ethical Societies with the Rationalist Press Association and the South Place Ethical Society. In 1963 the discussions went as far as creating an umbrella Humanist Association of which Harold Blackham was the Executive Director, in the 1960s the BHA campaigned on the repeal of Sunday Observance laws and the reform of the 1944 Education Act’s clauses on religion in schools. More generally the BHA aimed to defend freedom of speech, support the elimination of world poverty and it was claimed in 1977 that the BHA aimed to make humanism available and meaningful to the millions who have no alternative belief. At this time the BHA also supported a number of local communities. A network of celebrants able to conduct funerals, weddings, naming ceremonies and same sex affirmations was also developed. Social concerns have persisted in the BHA’s programme, the BHA has been active in arguing for voluntary euthanasia and the right to obtain an abortion. It has always sought an open society, the BHA claims that the rules on religious programming within the BBC constitute a religious privilege and reserve particular criticism for the Thought for the Day slot on Radio 4s Today programme. They also support humanist volunteers on the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education which currently determines the Religious Education syllabus for each local authority, the BHA opposes the teaching of creationism in schools. In September 2011, the BHA launched their Teach evolution, not creationism campaign, the Department for Education amended the funding agreement to allow the withdrawal of funding for free schools that teach creationism as established scientific fact. It has also campaigned for opt-out organ donor registers to improve the availability of life-saving organs in the UK, the BHA also campaigns on marriage laws, demanding full equality for same-sex and humanist marriage ceremonies throughout the UK. The BHA had been providing same-sex wedding ceremonies for decades, and had strongly supported legalising same-sex marriage years in advance of eventual UK, in 2013, it secured an amendment to the same sex marriage bill to require UK Government to consult on letting humanist celebrants conduct legal marriages. Though the consultation result strongly indicated that legalisation should go ahead and it also campaigns for same-sex and humanist marriages in Northern Ireland. Many of its campaigns are based on speech and human rights legislation. In 2008, the law was repealed, an issue over which the BHA had long-campaigned
3.
Meme
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A meme, a neologism coined by Richard Dawkins, is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, proponents theorize that memes are a viral phenomenon that may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. Memes do this through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts. A field of study called memetics arose in the 1990s to explore the concepts, criticism from a variety of fronts has challenged the notion that academic study can examine memes empirically. However, developments in neuroimaging may make empirical study possible, others have argued that this use of the term is the result of a misunderstanding of the original proposal. The word meme originated with Richard Dawkins 1976 book The Selfish Gene, later, he argued that his original intentions, presumably before his approval of Humphreys opinion, had been simpler. At the New Directors Showcase 2013 in Cannes, Dawkins opinion on memetics was deliberately ambiguous, examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catchphrases, fashion, and the technology of building arches. The word meme originated with Richard Dawkins 1976 book The Selfish Gene, Dawkins cites as inspiration the work of geneticist L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, anthropologist F. T. Cloak and ethologist J. M. Cullen, for Dawkins, the meme exemplified another self-replicating unit with potential significance in explaining human behavior and cultural evolution. T. H. Huxley claimed that The struggle for existence holds as much in the intellectual as in the physical world, a theory is a species of thinking, and its right to exist is coextensive with its power of resisting extinction by its rivals. Dawkins used the term to refer to any entity that an observer might consider a replicator. He hypothesized that one could view many cultural entities as replicators, Memes generally replicate through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient copiers of information and behavior. Because humans do not always copy memes perfectly, and because they may refine, combine or otherwise modify them with other memes to create new memes, they can change over time. Dawkins likened the process by which memes survive and change through the evolution of culture to the selection of genes in biological evolution. Dawkins defined the meme as a unit of transmission, or a unit of imitation and replication. The lack of a consistent, rigorous, and precise understanding of what makes up one unit of cultural transmission remains a problem in debates about memetics. In contrast, the concept of genetics gained concrete evidence with the discovery of the functions of DNA
4.
The Selfish Gene
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The Selfish Gene is a 1976 book on evolution by Richard Dawkins, in which Dawkins builds upon the principal theory of George C. From the gene-centred view, it follows that the two individuals are genetically related, the more sense it makes for them to behave selflessly with each other. A lineage is expected to evolve to maximise its inclusive fitness—the number of copies of its genes passed on globally, as a result, populations will tend towards an evolutionarily stable strategy. The book also coins the term meme for a unit of cultural evolution analogous to the gene, suggesting that such selfish replication may also model human culture. Memetics has become the subject of studies since the publication of the book. In raising awareness of the ideas of W. D. Hamilton, as well as making its own contributions to the field. — W. D. Hamilton, The evolution of altruistic behavior pp. 354-355 An extended discussion of Dawkins views and his book The Selfish Gene is provided by Wilkins, the second edition is divided into chapters as follows,1, Why are people. The contention is that the genes that are passed on are the ones whose evolutionary consequences serve their own implicit interest in being replicated, in later work, Dawkins brings evolutionary selfishness down to creation of a widely proliferated extended phenotype. For some, the metaphor of selfishness is entirely clear, while to others it is confusing, misleading, for example, Andrew Brown has written, Selfish, when applied to genes, doesnt mean selfish at all. It means, instead, an important quality for which there is no good word in the English language. The fundamental units of selection, the basic things that survive or fail to survive. They generally, for reasons that we come to, gang together into large communal survival machines or ‘vehicles’. As replicating molecules became more complex, Dawkins postulates, the became the genes within organisms. An example of this might be a gene that protects the organism against a disease and this helps the gene spread, and also helps the organism. Another example is the existence of segregation distorter genes that are detrimental to their host, likewise, the persistence of junk DNA that provides no benefit to its host can be explained on the basis that it is not subject to selection. These unselected for but transmitted DNA variations connect the individual genetically to its parents and these examples might suggest that there is a power struggle between genes and their interactor. In fact, the claim is that there isnt much of a struggle because the genes usually win without a fight. However, the claim is made if the organism becomes intelligent enough to understand its own interests, as distinct from those of its genes
5.
Computer virus
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A computer virus is a type of malicious software program that, when executed, replicates by reproducing itself or infecting other computer programs by modifying them. Infecting computer programs can include as well, data files, or the sector of the hard drive. When this replication succeeds, the areas are then said to be infected with a computer virus. The term virus is also commonly, but erroneously, used to refer to types of malware. The majority of active malware threats are actually trojan horse programs or computer worms rather than computer viruses, the term computer virus, coined by Fred Cohen in 1985, is a misnomer. Virus writers use social engineering deceptions and exploit detailed knowledge of security vulnerabilities to gain access to their hosts computers and computing resources. Computer viruses currently cause billions of dollars worth of damage each year, due to causing system failure, wasting computer resources, corrupting data, increasing maintenance costs. The work of von Neumann was later published as the Theory of self-reproducing automata, in his essay von Neumann described how a computer program could be designed to reproduce itself. Von Neumanns design for a computer program is considered the worlds first computer virus. In 1972, Veith Risak, directly building on von Neumanns work on self-replication, the article describes a fully functional virus written in assembler programming language for a SIEMENS 4004/35 computer system. In 1980 Jürgen Kraus wrote his diplom thesis Selbstreproduktion bei Programmen at the University of Dortmund, in his work Kraus postulated that computer programs can behave in a way similar to biological viruses. The Creeper virus was first detected on ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, Creeper was an experimental self-replicating program written by Bob Thomas at BBN Technologies in 1971. Creeper used the ARPANET to infect DEC PDP-10 computers running the TENEX operating system, Creeper gained access via the ARPANET and copied itself to the remote system where the message, Im the creeper, catch me if you can. The Reaper program was created to delete Creeper, in fiction, the 1973 Michael Crichton sci-fi movie Westworld made an early mention of the concept of a computer virus, being a central plot theme that causes androids to run amok. Alan Oppenheimers character summarizes the problem by stating that. theres a pattern here which suggests an analogy to an infectious disease process. To which the replies are stated, Perhaps there are similarities to disease and. In 1982, a program called Elk Cloner was the first personal computer virus to appear in the wild—that is, outside the single computer or lab where it was created. Written in 1981 by Richard Skrenta while in the grade at Mount Lebanon High School near Pittsburgh, it attached itself to the Apple DOS3.3 operating system
6.
A Devil's Chaplain
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A Devils Chaplain, subtitled Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love is a 2003 book of selected essays and other writings by Richard Dawkins. Published five years after his previous book Unweaving the Rainbow, it contains essays covering subjects including pseudoscience, genetic determinism, memetics, terrorism, religion, a section of the book is devoted to Dawkins late adversary Stephen Jay Gould. Robin McKie reviewed the book for The Observer and stated that the book contained a mixture of touching essays, argument from poor design Great Ape Project Review by Michael Ruse,2003. A Devils Chaplain by Richard Dawkins
7.
The Root of All Evil?
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Later retitled The God Delusion, is a television documentary written and presented by Richard Dawkins in which he argues that humanity would be better off without religion or belief in God. The documentary was first broadcast in January 2006, in the form of two 45-minute episodes, on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. Dawkins has said that the title The Root of All Evil. was not his preferred choice, the sole concession from the producers on the title was the addition of the question mark. Dawkins has stated that the notion of anything being the root of all evil is ridiculous, Dawkins book The God Delusion, released in September 2006, goes on to examine the topics raised in the documentary in greater detail. The documentary was rebroadcast on the More4 channel on 25 August 2010 under the title of The God Delusion, the God Delusion explores the unproven beliefs that are treated as factual by many religions and the extremes to which some followers have taken them. Dawkins opens the programme by describing the would-be murderers, who want to kill you and me, and themselves, because theyre motivated by what they think is the highest ideal. Dawkins first visits the shrine of Lourdes in southern France, where he joins a candlelit procession of pilgrims singing and he is particularly struck by the sense of group solidarity in their perceived delusion, which he contrasts with the lonely delusion that one is Napoleon, for example. At daybreak, Dawkins surveys the faithful queuing up for healing water and he speaks to an Irish woman who has found the experience beneficial. Dawkins then quizzes Father Liam Griffin about the number of miraculous cures which have taken place over the years. Griffin reports 66 declared miracles and about 2,000 unexplained cures, Dawkins continues with a discussion of what he sees as a conflict between faith and science. For an example of faith, Dawkins takes the infallible doctrine of the Assumption and he contrasts this with the scientific method, which he describes as a system whereby working assumptions may be falsified by recourse to reason and evidence. Dawkins then considers a scientific theory of great significance to him–Charles Darwins theory of evolution–which he discusses by reference to his Mount Improbable analogy. The notion that the complexity of life emerged either through blind chance or by the hand of an intelligent designer. By contrast, he suggests that Darwins theory of design by natural selection provides an explanation which is akin to climbing a mountain gradually, Dawkins also comments that the design hypothesis raises another question, who made the Maker. Next, Dawkins visits Colorado Springs, Colorado, to discuss the rise of fundamentalist Christianity in the United States and he visits the New Life Church, an US$18 million worship centre where Pastor Ted Haggard at the time presided over a 14,000 strong congregation. Haggard was at the chairman of the National Association of Evangelicals and, according to Dawkins. Dawkins interviews Haggard and begins by likening the experience to a Nuremberg Rally of which Goebbels might have been proud. Haggard says he knows nothing of the Nuremberg Rallies and goes on to say that some think of his services as something akin to rock concerts
8.
Amotz Zahavi
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Amotz Zahavi is an Israeli evolutionary biologist, a Professor Emeritus at the Zoology Department of Tel Aviv University, and one of the founders of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. His main works are in the evolution of signals, particularly those that indicate fitness, Amotz Zahavi received his Ph. D from Tel Aviv University in 1970. He is married to Avishag Zahavi, a biologist and a co-investigator, evolved by sexual selection, these act as signals of the status of the organism, functioning to e. g. attract mates. He expanded it with theories on honest signalling and the idea that selection would favour signals that impose a higher cost, mate selection - a selection for a handicap. The handicap principle, a piece of Darwins puzzle. ISBN 0-19-510035-2 List of Israel Prize recipients Professor Amotz Zahavi at Tel Aviv University
