Richard Dawkins on The Science of Why You Are Lucky to Be Alive

Dawkins links the odds of existence to evolution, reproduction, and cosmic time. The argument is that the people who could have existed vastly outnumber the people who do exist, so being alive is a rare outcome rather than a given.

He also uses Yeats’s epitaph and Faraday’s reply about the use of science to argue that science should not be judged only by utility. Life should include living, and science, like art and rare species, has value beyond keeping us alive.

Reading notes

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• Montaigne’s thought about not being alive a hundred years ago or hence is used to frame Dawkins’s argument.
• Dawkins says most possible people never get born, and the actual people are outnumbered by the possible ones by an enormous margin.
• He extends the same logic to conception, saying the lottery starts before birth because parents had to meet and conceive.
• He pushes the argument back to the scale of the universe and says the present century is overwhelmingly unlikely to be the one in the spotlight.
• The result is the claim that we are lucky to be alive.
• Yeats’s epitaph, “Cast a cold eye / On life, on death. / Horsemen, pass by!” is presented as fitting last words for a scientist.
• Dawkins uses Faraday’s reply about the use of science to argue against judging everything only by immediate usefulness.
• He says life should include living, not only staying alive.
• He connects that idea to the justification for the arts, for preserving rare species, and for conserving beautiful buildings.
• Science, he says, pays its way, but that is not all it is.