Appetite for Wonder
I've just finished reading the memoir of Richard Dawkins, the politely spoken English scientist who is often described as a 'militant atheist' because he is a formidable and resolute critic of organised religion.
The book is aptly called 'An Appetite for Wonder' and tells the story of Dawkins life up until the point he wrote his seminal book, The Selfish Gene, which explained in non-scientific language the operation of Darwinian evolution and the role in natural selection played by human genes.
I've always been impressed by Dawkins' bedside manner and he writes the way he talks in prose which is uncomplicated and easy to understand, but very polite and reasonable which, if you ask, me is what drives his opponents mad - they would rather he was not so pleasant, so quintessentially English and unthreatening.
But for all his devotion to logic, reason and scientific enquiry Richard Dawkins has a great sense of humour and is clearly a hugely emotional person with a love of music and poetry which he refers to frequently in his book.
My personal favourite is this one about giant dinosaurs which apparently had two brains because their "very long spinal column imposed an inconvenient distance between the brain in the head and the seat of much of the action, the giant hind legs. Natural selection solved the problem with a second 'brain (enlarged ganglion) in the pelvis:
Behold the mighty dinosaur,
Famous in prehistoric lore,
Not only for his power and strength
But for his intellectual length.
You will observe by these remains
The creature had two sets of brains -
One in his head (the usual place),
The other at his spinal base.
Thus he could reason 'A Priori',
As well as 'A Posteriori'.
No problem bothered him a bit
He made a head and tail of it.
So wise was he, so wise and solemn,
Each thought just filled one spinal column
If one brain found the pressure strong
It passed a few ideas along.
If something slipped his forward mind
'Twas rescued by the one behind
And if in error he was caught
He had a saving afterthought.
As he thought twice before he spoke
He had no judgment to revoke.
Thus he could think without congestion
Upon both sides of every question.
Oh, gaze upon this model beast,
Defunct ten million years at least.
Bert Leston Taylor (1866 - 1921)
Richard Dawkins shares his thoughts about the poem with unbridled admiration:
"Thus he cold reason 'A Priori' / As well as 'A Posteriori" - I wish I'd written that. You'd have to look far before you found another poem with quite so many flashes of wit in almost every line."
I've read lots of Dawkins' books including The God Delusion and just to prove I was paying attention that's why the fossil record of the dinosaurs, for example, proves conclusively that the Bible and the tale of Noah's Ark are incompatible with any serious discussion about the history of the world.
Well worth a read, I'd say, so I'm looking forward to the next instalment of Dawkins' memoir which will no doubt his later life and friendship with Christopher Hitchens.
