[[File:Richard Dawkins photo.jpg|thumbnail|200px|left|After previously apologizing to [[feminism|feminists]] and others for the [[Elevatorgate]] scandal, Dawkins retracted his apology and said, "I don’t take back anything that I’ve said. I would not say it again, however, because I am now accustomed to being misunderstood and so I will... I feel muzzled, and a lot of other people do as well.“<ref name="washingtonpost.com">[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/richard-dawkins-stands-by-remarks-on-sexism-pedophilia-down-syndrome/2014/11/18/a2915cd8-6f64-11e4-a2c2-478179fd0489_story.html Richard Dawkins stands by remarks on sexism, pedophilia, Down syndrome], by Kimberly Winston | Religion News Service November 18, 2014 and syndicated to the ''Washington Post''</ref><ref>[https://twitter.com/rebeccawatson/status/497087309805027328 Rebecca Watson's Twitter post about Dawkins' apology]</ref><ref name="Who is belittling what">[https://richarddawkins.net/2014/08/who-is-belittling-what/ Who is belittling what?] by Richard Dawkins</ref>]]
Richard Dawkins was born in Nairobi, Kenya.<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2004/jul/25/research.science</ref> He was a child of a family of colonial forest officers.<ref>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3657215/Preaching-to-the-converted.html</ref>
Dawkins was raised to have religious values, and confesses that when he was young, he acknowledged the complexity of life and believed that it indicated a designer. However, during his teens, he chose to abandon this faith and embrace Darwinism instead, despite admitting that he hadn’t actually read [[Charles Darwin]]’s works.<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/feb/10/religion.scienceandnature</ref><ref name="bbc.co.uk">https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/atheism/people/dawkins.shtml</ref> See also: [[British atheism]] and [[UK and secularism]]