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=== Advocacy of atheism ===

Dawkins lecturing on his book The God Delusion, 24 June 2006.

Dawkins is an outspoken atheist and is a supporter of various atheist, secular, and humanistic organisations. Although he was confirmed into the Church of England at the age of thirteen, he started to lose his religious faith when he discovered Darwin. He revealed that his understanding evolution led him to atheism and is puzzled by the belief in God among scientifically-literate individuals. He disagrees with Stephen Jay Gould's principle of nonoverlapping magisteriaand considers the existence of God to be just a scientific hypothesis like any other. Dawkins became a prominent critic of religion and has stated his opposition to religion is twofold: Religion is both a source of conflict and a justification for belief without evidence. He considers faith—belief that is not based on evidence—as one of the world's great evils. He rose to prominence in public debates relating science and religion since the publication of his book The God Delusion in 2006, which became an international best seller. Its success has been seen by many as indicative of a change in the contemporary cultural zeitgeist and has also been identified with rise of New Atheism.

Dawkins sees education and consciousness-raising as the primary tools in opposing what he considers to be religious dogma and indoctrination. These tools include the fight against certain stereotypes, and he has adopted the term Bright as a way of associating positive public connotations with those who possess a naturalistic worldview. He has given support to the idea of a free thinking school, which would not indoctrinate children in atheism or in any religion but would instead teach children to be critical and open-minded. Inspired by the consciousness raising successes of feminists in arousing widespread embarrassment at the routine use of "he" instead of "she", Dawkins similarly suggests that phrases such as "Catholic child" and "Muslim child" should be considered as socially absurd as, for instance, "Marxist child", as he believes that children should not be classified based on their parents' ideological or religious beliefs.

Dawkins with Ariane Sherine at the Atheist Bus Campaign launch in London

Dawkins suggests that atheists should be proud, not apologetic, stressing that atheism is evidence of a healthy, independent mind. He hopes that the more atheists identify themselves, the more the public will become aware of just how many people actually hold these views, thereby reducing the negative opinion of atheism among the religious majority. Inspired by the gay rights movement, he founded the Out Campaign to encourage atheists worldwide to declare their stance publicly and proudly. He supported the UK's first atheist advertising initiative, the Atheist Bus Campaign in 2008, which aimed to raise funds to place atheist advertisements on buses in the London area.

Dawkin's advocacy of atheism has been controversial. Writers such as Christopher Hitchens have defended his stridency while Nobel laureates Sir Harold Kroto and James D. Watson and psychologist Steven Pinker have praised his book, The God Delusion. In contrast, literary critic Terry Eagleton, theologian Alister McGrath, and science philosopher Michael Ruse have accused Dawkins of being ignorant of theology and therefore unable to engage religion and faith intelligently while scientists such as Martin Rees and Peter Higgs have disparaged Dawkin's attacks on religion as unhelpful and fundamentalistic. In response to his critics, Dawkins maintains that theologians are no better than scientists in addressing deep cosmological questions and that he himself was not a fundamentalist as he was willing to change his mind in the face of new evidence.

Dawkin's advocacy of atheism has been controversial, and he has received both praise and criticism from prominent scientists, theologians, and writers alike.