The Selfish Gene

Key takeaways:

- Great job writing about a complex topic and making it accessible. Many excellent metaphors were used throughout the book that nicely demonstrated concepts in a way that was easy to understand not just what was happening, but also why and how.
- I liked the section that talked about faith, but I think for a very different reason than Mr. Dawkins intended. He argues that faith is a handicap causing people to ignore evidence, and have such strong beliefs that they are willing to kill or be killed. Of course I would argue my faith is based on evidence and that the blind faith he describes is not the way that I approach my belief system. The part I found especially compelling was where he described faith as something that causes all kinds of evil in the world. I agree that I have seen that in many people, however my faith has pushed me to be more nice, kind, honest, and selfless than I would otherwise have been. I think my faith has been a net benefit to the world, at least in recent years, as my faith has evolved greatly.