The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

“Intelligent life on a planet comes of
age when it first works out the reason for its own existence. If superior creatures from space ever visit earth, the first question they will ask, in order to assess the level of our civilization, is: 'Have they discovered evolution yet?'”
– Chapter 1, pg. 1

“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.” – Chapter 1, pg. 3

“Before the coming of life on earth, some rudimentary evolution of molecules could have occurred by ordinary processes of physics and chemistry. There is no need to think of design or purpose or directedness. If a group of atoms in the presence of energy falls into a stable pattern it will tend to stay that way. The earliest form of natural selection was simply a selection of stable forms and a rejection of unstable ones. There is no mystery about this. It had to happen by definition.” – Chapter 2, pg. 13

“Evolution is blind to the future.” – Chapter 9, pg. 162

“Replicators are no longer peppered freely throughout the sea; they are packaged in huge colonies - individual bodies. But the individual body, so familiar to us on our planet, did not have to exist. The only kind of entity that has to exist in order for life to arise, anywhere in the universe, is the immortal replicator.” – Chapter 13, pg. 266

So those were some of my favorite book quotes from The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

If it wasn’t copyright infringement, I would quote the entire second chapter of this book! Dawkins' argument for how life could have begun (without the help of divine intervention) is incredible! As an atheist, I do not base my morals or personal principles on anyone’s explanation of the origins of life. Jesus could have been wrong, just as Dawkins’ theory could be disproved in the years to come. Neither of these revelations will change how I act towards others or

feel about my own life. But the explanation provided in this book is exhilarating because it follows that humans are nothing – nothing but survival machines (to use Dawkins’ terminology) molded by natural selection and used by our egotistical genes for their own selfish propagation. How depressing! But oh, how liberating! To have no purpose in life (other than to house and spread our genes) is a scary thought, to be sure, but frees each of us from the shackles of some predetermined reason for existing. If you wish to make light of it all, you can thank Richard Dawkins for successfully reasoning that you are required to do no more in life than keep yourself alive and have sex!