Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. We are only vessels for our genes, what we do doesn't really matter as long as we pass our genes along, from the perspective of our genes. I would also recommend other Dawkins books such as The God Delusion, it was one of the pivotal books that turned me from someone vaguely religious to an atheist. It explains simply how the various fallacies of religions are explainable and unwrappable.
When I read The Selfish Gene that explanation was very convincing to my (layman's) mind, but I've since wondered if some sort of "multilevel selection" mightn't do a better job of explaining both individual and group behavior. (The idea of "memes" is an interesting metaphor, imo, and nothing more.) This reminds me of a book I had hoped to read, "Darwin's Cathedral."
Re: Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?
#181You might want to read up on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. It's a proposed extension to the modern synthesis of Dawkins' generation and includes concepts like multilevel selection and cultural evolution. It's currently a matter of debate and empirical verification in the field. But it's a lot more in line with my way of thinking about evolution as a constantly self-bootstrapping process finding new media to evolve. I subscribe to an evolutionary cosmology myself(not Sheldrake's drivel), but that's mostly just a pet theory I like to think about when I'm high :D