Richard Dawkins Reads His Hate Mail

Outspoken atheist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has devoted his life to educating the public about science and religion, two of the most divisive topics out there, so it probably won't come as a shock to hear that he gets significantly more hate mail than the average person. He accepts it with more aplomb than most people would — in fact, he's so chill about it that every few years a video will surface of Richard Dawkins reading his hate mail out loud, just for shits and giggles, in a series called "Love Letters to Richard Dawkins." It's basically Jimmy Kimmel's Celebrities Read Mean Tweets Out Loud: Science Edition! Only it involves a lot less criticisms of his appearance and a lot more talk about monkeys. "I bet you have sex with monkeys," reads one letter. "You may have evolved from monkeys but leave me out of it," rages another, following that up with, "Have you ever made love to a monkey?" Seriously, these people are obsessed with monkeys.By far, the best part of the seven-minute video (these particular haters are a verbose people) is that Dawkins keeps a straight face the whole time. Except for a few twitches, he manages to read excerpts like, "You're a GAY-theist," and "Fuck you, you fuckity fucker," without cracking a smile. Someone get this man a spot on SNL, stat. Other than the occasional incredulous chuckle, Dawkins doesn't seem to be too affected by the frankly astonishing levels of hatred on display. "They're all just rather fun," he says when asked about what reading the letters does to his self-esteem. I guess it's one of those laugh-or-cry situations, and he chose to laugh.Watch the video below (it contains very NSFW language, obviously):