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Science in the Soul
Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist | Richard Dawkins
36 posts | 5 read | 7 to read
The legendary biologist, provocateur, and bestselling author mounts a timely and passionate defense of science and clear thinking with this career-spanning collection of essays, including twenty pieces published in the United States for the first time. For decades, Richard Dawkins has been a brilliant scientific communicator, consistently illuminating the wonders of nature and attacking faulty logic. Science in the Soul brings together forty-two essays, polemics, and paeansall written with Dawkinss characteristic erudition, remorseless wit, and unjaded awe of the natural world. Though it spans three decades, this book couldnt be more timely or more urgent. Elected officials have opened the floodgates to prejudices that have for half a century been unacceptable or at least undercover. In a passionate introduction, Dawkins calls on us to insist that reason take center stage and that gut feelings, even when they dont represent the stirred dark waters of xenophobia, misogyny, or other blind prejudice, should stay out of the voting booth. And in the essays themselves, newly annotated by the author, he investigates a number of issues, including the importance of empirical evidence, and decries bad science, religion in the schools, and climate-change deniers. Dawkins has equal ardor for the sacred truth of nature and renders here with typical virtuosity the glories and complexities of the natural world. Woven into an exploration of the vastness of geological time, for instance, is the peculiar history of the giant tortoises and the sea turtleswhose journeys between water and land tell us a deeper story about evolution. At this moment, when so many highly placed people still question the fact of evolution, Dawkins asks what Darwin would make of his own legacya mixture of exhilaration and exasperationand celebrates science as possessing many of religions virtuesexplanation, consolation, and upliftwithout its detriments of superstition and prejudice. In a world grown irrational and hostile to facts, Science in the Soul is an essential collection by an indispensable author. Advance praise for Science in the Soul The illumination of Richard Dawkinss incisive thinking on the intellectual world extends far beyond biology. What a treat to see so clearly how matter and meaning fit together, from fiction to philosophy to molecular biology, in one unified vision!Daniel C. Dennett, author of From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds I thank Thor and Zeus that in their infinite wisdom they chose to make the great wordsmith of our age a great rationalist, and vice versa.Matt Ridley, author of The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge In this golden age of enlightened science writing, it is stunning that no scientist has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is time literatures highest award be granted to a scientist whose writings have changed not just science but society. No living scientist is more deserving of such recognition than Richard Dawkins. . . . Science in the Soul is the perfect embodiment of Nobelquality literature.Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, columnist for Scientific American, and author of The Moral Arc: How Science Makes Us Better People Science in the Soul is packed with Dr. Dawkinss philosophy, humor, anger, and quiet wisdom, leading the reader gently but firmly to inevitable conclusions that edify and educate.James Randi, author of The Faith Healers
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hgrimes
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Current library stack. #BiteMeForbes

LauraJ Good stack! 6y
Erinsuereads But what is that butterfly book!!!! 6y
mrp27 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 love the hashtag 6y
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hgrimes @mrp27 lol thank you, I‘m still cranky at them weeks later! 6y
hgrimes @ErinSueG That‘s what “Fragile Things” by Neil Gaiman looks like naked! 6y
Erinsuereads @hgrimes nooooo! Oh god! That‘s amazing. Buying right now! I‘m a huge Neil Gaiman fan 6y
hgrimes @ErinSueG haha! Glad I could help! It‘s one of his short stories collections and is quite good, as always! 6y
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hgrimes
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I don‘t wish to taint Litsy with political opinions, but weeks where there‘s strings of bad news seem to always bring out the skeptic in me (wonder why that is). Time to catch up on Dawkins.

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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek

What accounts for the popularity of Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, George W. Bush--politicians who flaunt their ignorance as a virtue? You want your airline pilot to be educated in aeronautics and navigation. You want your surgeon to be learned in anatomy. Yet when you vote for a president to lead a country, you prefer somebody who is ignorant and proud of it, someone you'd enjoy having a drink with, rather than someone qualified for high office?

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keithmalek

The theory of natural selection itself seems calculated to foster selfishness at the expense of public good; violence, callous indifference to suffering, short-term greed at the expense of long-term foresight. If scientific theories could vote, Evolution would surely vote Republican.

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keithmalek
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keithmalek

Can you think of something that we accept with equanimity in 2017 but future centuries will regard with the same revulsion as we, today, view the slave trade or the railway wagons bound for Belsen? I don't think it requires much imagination to think of at least one candidate. Don't the Belsen-bound railway wagons come to mind when you drive behind one of those closed-in trucks with bewildered, fearful eyes peering through the ventilation slats?

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keithmalek
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Damn right! I WISH my parents had felt the same way.

TheBookAddict Same here...I‘m the only bookworm in my family. Now I have a niece who likes to read as well, so I don‘t feel too lonely. When we visit, her and I end up talking about books we‘ve recently read or that have become movies. She‘s a freshman in HS, but we still have some interesting conversations. 7y
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek

The pro-lifer screams 'Murder' at the abortion doctor and goes home to a steak dinner.

Suet624 Ha! Yup. 7y
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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BestDogDad Exactly! Another great quote from a great book. 👍🏼 7y
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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JanuarieTimewalker13 That is why Factory Farming is horrendous. 7y
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keithmalek
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BestDogDad Great quote. My dog is terrified of fireworks, some summer nights can be hard on her. 7y
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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On Christopher Hitchens.

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keithmalek
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Christopher Hitchens

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keithmalek

Who are your favorite heroines in real life? The women of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran who risk their lives and their beauty to defy the foulness of theorcracy. --Christopher Hitchens

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keithmalek
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Dawkins lists a few of his favorite Christopher Hitchens quotations.

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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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Shemac77 Love Hitch. So sad he‘s gone. 7y
keithmalek @Shemac77 I know. And to make matters worse, he died on my birthday. 7y
BookMaven407 I didn't realize he passed on his birthday. 7y
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BestDogDad Hitch is missed. Can you imagine him weighing in on the current affairs in the US?! 7y
keithmalek @BookMaven407 He didn't. He died on MY birthday. 7y
BookMaven407 GOT IT! Thanks for clarifying what my eyes skipped over. 7y
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keithmalek
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On Christopher Hitchens

BestDogDad YES! 7y
LivingReflections Truth.... also I learned more vocabulary from reading Hitchens than from memorizing SAT words. 😃 7y
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Jen2
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Pickpick

Always so interesting!

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BestDogDad
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Pickpick

This is the second such collection of Richard's essays and speeches, some of them going back a couple decades. It was narrated by Richard and ex-wife, Lalla Ward.

The sections I enjoyed the most included the following subjects: anti-religion, Galapagos Islands, animal rights, and the tributes to his father and Christopher Hitchens. The animal rights essays surprised me as I've never heard Richard talk about this subject. Overall: excellent.

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BestDogDad
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saresmoore This book sounds really interesting! 7y
BestDogDad @saresmoore it‘s a good starting point if you haven‘t read any Dawkins, it‘s a collection of his essays and speeches from the last couple of decades. In true Dawkins fashion he doesn‘t pull any punches. 7y
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BestDogDad
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Nice quote about Douglas Adams.

Natasha.C.Barnes 😭 I stumbled across his grave in London once! 7y
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BestDogDad
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BestDogDad
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Hanging at B&N over lunch so I grabbed this neat quote from the paper version. Maybe humans can survive the death of our sun, or an earlier extinction event, after all. Start burning those CDs!

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BestDogDad
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New Dawkins. I‘m on it, audio style. A collection of essays, lectures, and letters.

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speljamr
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#TBRtemptation. Another one I need to add to my list.