Technical Details
- ISBN13: 9781416594796
- Condition: New
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Product Description
Richard Dawkins transformed our view of God in his blockbuster, The God Delusion, which sold more than 2 million copies in English alone. He revolutionized the way we see natural selection in the seminal bestseller The Selfish Gene. Now, he launches a fierce counterattack against proponents of "Intelligent Design" in his latest New York Times bestseller, The Greatest Show on Earth. "Intelligent Design" is being taught in our schools; educators are being asked to "teach the controversy" behind evolutionary theory. There is no controversy. Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence—from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics—to make the airtight case that "we find ourselves perched on one tiny twig in the midst of a blossoming and flourishing tree of life and it is no accident, but the direct consequence of evolution by non-random selection." His unjaded passion for the natural world turns what might have been a negative argument, exposing the absurdities of the creationist position, into a positive offering to the reader: nothing less than a master’s vision of life, in all its splendor.Similar Products
Customer Reviews
2010-10-12
By Al Sabawi (Vestal, NY)
If you have read Dawkins' earlier books and found answers about the meaning of life, then this book is just the cherry on top. It will update and enforce what he has started in "The Selfish Gene." I certainly recommend this book. But mostly I want readers to see it as continuation of what Dawkins likes to refer to as 'awareness raising' of the role of evolution in our lives.
2010-10-12
By Xingheng T. Wang (New York, NY USA)
I never thought that evolution would ever defense. Even in Utah (of all places), evolution was taught in my high school, and I don't remember anyone in the class raised an objection. The evidences presented in class back then seemed sufficient. When I picked up this book at Hongkong airport, I was more curious about additional information that can presented about evolution, since I didn't study biology beyond AP biology in High School, which is because I don't want to go into any field similar to my dad, who has a Ph.D. in some subfield of biology.
As a book on popular science to the layman, this certainly achieves that. I was always curious about what they mean when they say chimps and humans have 98% of DNA in common, and how the radioactive dating worked. The information are presented so well that I couldn't put the book down.
A good portion of the book seems to be an effort to convert the creationists. A book as such is much needed since so many political leaders in US are so scientifically illiterate. However, I think the book fails on that effort. For someone so stupid to be a creationist, they can't possibly possession the mental capacity to follow the dense chapters on embryology or molecular genetics. What they need is to have ideas reduced into sounds bites, one liners, and colorful pamphlets. Someone please write such a book.
2010-10-11
By TBell
For anyone who doesn't fully understand evolution or who is on the fence about the matter, this is a must read. It's not for the faint of mind either. Dawkins doesn't spare anytime with good old light hearted debate, he discharges pure scientific data and empirical research to make the point clear and un-debatable.
Richard not only uses the traditional forms of fossil records to validate evolutions case, but more importantly he delves deeper into an array of scientific disciplines that together authenticate evolution as fact. It's time we open our understanding and come to grips with the truth.
2010-10-08
By h2s
Dawkins has a great writing style and his arguments are crystal clear.
A good example of clear thinking by making hypothesis a then giving proofs for them.
But most of all, it shows his passion for the scientific method, which I think is the may lesson of the book: don't believe, be skeptic, that's what science is.
2010-10-07
By T. Patmore (Somewhere in Madagascar)
When a writer (or an artist) has written their finest work & experienced the adulation & recognition that are beyond their wildest dreams, it is difficult to write a follow-up. Often (as with Encore and Long Way Down), the follow-up proves weak and attention quickly goes elsewhere.
Fortunately this hasn't happened with this book to that degree (although it is a little tired in places - e.g. chapter 8 'You did it yourself in 9 months' & the ending). This book is, like all Dawkins books, an improvement on his last biology book in explaining evolution. Every book since The Extended Phenotype has been geared to popularise evolution & help the reader understand it. This book does so very persuasively with incredibly simple arguments in 'The Primrose path to Evolution', leading onto atomic clocks, experiments that have proven evolution & misconceptions about the fossil record.
Essentially, if you have a friend who hasn't read Dawkins (shame on them!), then this is a good place to start. Like Ancestor's tale, it makes little mention of religion & God (except Creationists) and is designed to persuade people like the Bishop of Oxford was, who are religious but also believe in evolution. Given the shocking statistic quoted in this book (that 40% of people don't believe in evolution), it is very much your duty to open the doors of perception for these people so that they may see (at least partially) how the World works.
That said, this book does have some weaknesses. The digressions Dawkins goes into can sometimes lead off the point & should have been footnoted at the back (as with The Selfish Gene). John Cornwell has also criticised Dawkins for quoting his own books and this, unfortunately, is quite common here (as it was with his latest documentary - The Genius of Charles Darwin).
One last criticism is that the book 'Why is Evolution is true' by Jerry Coyne pops up a little too many times, which makes me wonder if its ideas were lifted for this book. The sources in this book are also not as diverse as some of his other books, and it suffers a little for it.
Still, if you can ignore these weaknesses (which are slight), then this is still a good book to persuade those with no scientific knowledge of the truth of evolution. I would suggest, however, that The Ancestor's Tale is a more peerless book in this field & I found it much more persuasive even if it is more technical. Knowing the unscholarly as I do, I would suggest getting the audio CD of The Ancestor's Tale for those who are unconvinced (since everyone can hear but not all like reading). I wait, with baited breath, to see what the audio CD for this is like...
P.S. I was considering giving this review 4 stars were it not for the presence of reviewers who haven't read the book/ creationists, who rate 1 star for the sake of stopping people reading the book at all, and then ignore any counter arguments that are thrown their way. It may be that Dawkins is wrong & this book isn't the Greatest thing on Earth, but Creationist votebots & childish trolling tactics are not the way to prove this...
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