Richard Dawkins

Following a tweet in which Dawkins compared debates surrounding Rachel Dolezal with the treatment of transgender identity, the American Humanist Association withdrew the Humanist of the Year award it had given him in 1996. The association cited an accumulation of statements it considered disparaging towards marginalised groups.

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During a British debate about eugenics, Dawkins wrote that one could morally deplore eugenics while acknowledging that it would biologically "work", like artificial selection in animals and plants. The tweet provoked outrage because of the racist and coercive history of eugenics.

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Progressive radio station KPFA cancelled a Dawkins talk in Berkeley after stating that it had discovered remarks it considered offensive or abusive towards Islam. The decision itself sparked debate about the distinction between criticism of religion, hostility towards believers and freedom of expression.

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Dawkins sparked fresh controversy by using examples suggesting that some rapes or forms of sexual abuse are objectively more serious than others, to illustrate the logical proposition that saying Y is worse than X does not mean approving of X.

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Responding on Twitter to a woman discussing a hypothetical prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, Dawkins advised her to abort and "try again", adding that it would be immoral to bring the child into the world if she had a choice. The remarks provoked a strong reaction from families and associations.

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Dawkins sparked controversy by writing that Muslims worldwide had won fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College, Cambridge. Critics accused him of reducing a diverse global population to a cultural and institutional comparison deployed as an argument about religion and science.

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In an interview linked to his autobiography, Dawkins described sexual abuse he experienced as a child as a form of "mild pedophilia" and said he did not believe it had caused him lasting harm. He also argued that behaviour from an earlier era could not always be judged by exactly the same standards as those applied today.

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