The Selfish Gene

I read this book for the first time in the 80’s and found it excellent; it is quite well placed in number nine of the Discover Magazine 2006 list of Greatest Science Books of All Time. When Dawkins first published his book back in 1976, he wrote that, though the theory of evolution was generally recognized and barely doubted then, “the full implications of Darwin’s revolution had yet to be realized.” I feel positively that those implications are now absolutely realized and only religious fanatics dare to question natural selection. This quantum leap in universal understanding is due in a large proportion to The Selfish Gene. Dawkins not only explained Darwin’s selection but also expanded it backward in time with sound clarifications to the emergence of the first self-replicable molecule and forward to the recent time through imaginative elucidations about the replication of cultural characteristics through what he calls “memes.” Memes, the social equivalences of biological genes, is a word the author created and is nowadays of common use in social sciences.
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When I became seriously interested in the Teaching of Siddhattha Gotama, the Buddha, there were a few notions in common between the Teachings of the ancient sage and the assertions of the modern biologist—the inexistence of metaphysical essences in living beings, the purposelessness of life as a phenomenon, the “undivine” nature of morality—that I decided to read once more The Selfish Gene. In a material universe, how or where does Buddhist reincarnation fit with Dawkins’s biology? Here I have my own interpretation (which the bright English scientist most probably does not share). Each gen or, better said, the design in it coded, is eternal. Says Dawkins: “Each gen leaps from body to body in its own way and for its own ends, abandoning a succession of mortal bodies before they sink in senility and death. The genes are the immortals, or rather, they are defined as genetic entities that come close to deserving the title”. So, the much talked reincarnation or rebirth of some Eastern religions could be well assimilated to body-to-body transmission of genetic information, instead of some kind of mysterious energy or metaphysical essence. Enough of that! My biological interpretation of Buddhist reincarnation does not add a bit to the wonder of this book. The Selfish Gene is just superb.