The Indisputable Non-Genius of Richard Dawkins

Last night I caught a few nuggets of Richard Dawkins on Channel 4, waxing lyrical about The Genius of Charles Darwin. Dawkins, most well known for his books The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene, was intent on proving to us that kindness, charity and altruism should not be accepted for what they are; no, they have to be explained in terms of evolutionary theory. In other words, we're not nice to each other just because we're nice. We're nice because it confers upon us some evolutionary advantage. We are, as Dawkins so movingly put it, "survival machines".

I'm too weary of Dawkins to even begin deconstructing his loopy logic. What really struck me, more than his argument itself, was the obsessive manner in which he would try to put his beliefs across. He appears to be driven by a desire to prove that everything, all human and social phenomena, can be explained with recourse to evolutionary theory and genetics. That's fair enough, Dawkins. But other people have their own beliefs - just as valid as yours - about the foundations of human existence. By going around like some crazed televangelist, propelled by missionary zeal, you're really no better than the religious fanatic you so despise. Neither of you are able to accept that there are a million different belief systems, each as meaningful as the next. Neither of you can let go of your unshakeable faith in the singularity of your own Truth.

There was one part of the programme where Dawkins speaks to a woman working in a homeless shelter, dishing out hot soup while she explains that it's just the thing they need after a night out in the cold. He asks her where this charitable disposition comes from, and you can see his brain fizzing as he tries to comprehend it. This scene lent further support to my sneaking suspicion that Richard Dawkins is just not a particularly kind or empathetic individual, and last night's show may be better understood as his rather embarrassing attempt to grapple with the fact other people are, in fact, nice.

As for me, I'm quite happy to accept that altruism and compassion exist in our society, for whatever reason. The obsessive attempt to rationalise such behaviour probably tells us more about Dawkins' character than it demonstrates anything useful about our social existence.