The Selfish Gene

Has anyone else noticed this before? I suppose not — what a joyful and appalling discovery:
Have you ever wondered why scientific extremists like Richard Dawkins talk about a „Selfish Gene“?

The reason is simple: there are no genes in a given DNA, what there is are alleles! There is not a single „gene“ that has a better fit than another, but only „alleles“ that could be compared. But „scientists“ like Dawkins have made a big deal in indoctrinating the general public with unscientific talk of individual „genes“, when, in fact, these are alleles.

You might argue that this is only a quarrel of words or a simplification for the public to understand. Well, apparently, if „scientists“ like Dawkins knew their field, they would talk about „alleles“, not „genes“. But „gene“ was chosen instead of allele for pushing an agenda. There was a distinct and decisive effort to portray genes as some absolute entity clouding the reality that the state of things is a little bit more complex — and on the ethical side of the discussion, way off science, it is much much more complex.

But let’s get to the scientific side of things:
A gene is neither egoistic nor is it an entity you find, but a concept to structure DNA. A gene is a place on DNA that can be filled with information or more precicsely sequences of bases (i.e. alleles) for transcription that may or may not interact on definite localities in your body’s cell.
This aspect, that transcoded alleles (i.e. proteins) may have distinct places to operate is the hard scientific content of the notion of „genes“.

And with this explanation using only two sentences you can see that there is no need for any oversimplification for the public on this matter as Dawkins has put out hundreds of pages in his books disguising this fact.

Make it your agenda, spread the word and make „Gene“ from now on known to the public as: „a word that has been used by Richard Dawkins and the like to blind us“.