8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Pages 264 pp. Dewey Decimal 500 21 Originally published 2003 Subject Evolutionary biology OCLC 52269209 | 4/5 Goodreads Media type Print, e-book ISBN 0-618-33540-4 LC Class QH366.2 .D373 2003 Country United States of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder Similar Richard Dawkins books, Evolution books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Devil's 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 and creationism. A section of the book is devoted to Dawkins' late adversary Stephen Jay Gould.
The book's title is a reference to a quotation of Charles Darwin, made in reference to Darwin's lack of belief in how "a perfect world" was designed by God: "What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horridly cruel works of nature!"
Reception
Robin McKie reviewed the book for The Observer and stated that the book contained a mixture of touching essays and "the good, old knockabout stuff at which Dawkins excels".