As a kid, I had the feeling that genes were somehow different from chemicals because they were so essential for life. Biochemistry classes diminished this feeling somewhat, and reading The Selfish Gene diminished it even further.
It is easy to think of chemical reactions occurring at a rate partially determined by the concentration of substrate molecules, but integrating this concept into genetic expression is more difficult. Genes are chemicals. They react like chemicals because they are chemicals. Adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine are relatively stable molecules that link together weak hydrogen bonds which are broken up and reformed fairly easily - just like many other molecular chains.
The key lesson of The Selfish Gene is that genes do not any influence over their fate other than the amino acid they code for. Whatever happens after the amino acid is created is completely out of the control of the gene. The gene does not know or care what larger context it belongs to – it simply exists if it's amino acid byproduct somehow or another allows it to continue to exist.
A gene is completely and utterly stupid, has no sentience, thought, feelings, or concerns. Despite the title of Dawkins' book, a gene is not selfish and it certainly does not care about the creature it happens to exist in, the species the creature belongs to, or Mother Earth.
If you think about genes as lifeless chemical fragments, then you will be much, much closer to understanding the true nature of genes than most people.
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