Richard Is Just So Suave

In the next chapter, Dawkins finds a way to explain these scientific concepts that most people would find boring and compares them with everyday examples that we can relate with and understand. He begins by saying “muscles are engines which, like the steam engine and the internal combustion engine, use energy stored in chemical fuel to generate mechanical movement.”(47) Dawkins compares our muscles and their function to machine to explain to us how these work. Later on, he compares our genes and animals to computers and how both are “programmed” to the future plans without actually having to anything. Genes are given the instruction and will always control how are body is made, with this I understood that he wanted to prove the point that genes can control behavior. I finished chapter 4 but the last thing he mentioned made me realize that this had to do with the title of the book and how we can be selfish not just because that is who we are but because of our genes. Dawkins then relates DNA to books on a shelf, “it is as though in every room of a gigantic building, there was a book-case containing the architects plans for the entire building.”(22)

As I finished reading this chapter, I found myself skimming through the pages and reading the text with no hesitation. And I wanted to conclude this blog with this idea. Dawkins wrote and executed the entire planning and incorporated the right language so that anyone could pick up the book and read it, what is interesting about the informative novel, is that you don’t really need common knowledge to comprehend the book. Dawkins is like a teacher and we are his pupils, he teaches us through the book, and I never knew I could learn so quickly through a book.