The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design
by Richard Dawkins
List Price:
Our Price: $9.50
You Save: $7.45 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.25 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Richard DawkinsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1996-09-17
ISBN: 0393315703
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Book Reviews of The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design
Book Review: The Secret of Life
Summary: 5 Stars
In this rightly called classic book, Richard Dawkins unveils nothing less than the
Secret of life, the principle that encompasses all forms of living things, human, animal, plant, bacterial and even, if any, extraterrestrial. It is a principle that explains why we exist and why we are as we are. That principle is Darwinism.
Darwinism is a cumulative process based on step-by-step transformations (mutations) which arrive by chance. But, the cumulative selections (survivals) of the mutations are not random and are responsible for the existence of life's complex design.
The process (the `watchmaker') is blind. It has no long-term goal, no purpose. The selections are always short-term. But, it is the evolutionary change over the immensities of time which produced what we see around us.
The basic factor in cumulative selection is the property of self-replication. Mutations are `errors' in replication, which can become dominant because they produce fitter specimens (mutants).
All cells of living bodies contain genes (genetic material). But the selection is made on bodies, not genes.
The stuff of genes is DNA (a chain composed by 4 organic molecules). DNA itself is not durable, but its patterns are. Chromosomes, long strands of genes, are passed down generation after generation.
Richard Dawkins also tackles passionately other important aspects of Darwinism.
In the ongoing dispute between `gradualness' and `punctuationism' (sudden evolutionary bursts, like the swelling of the human skull), he cleverly cites J.B.S. Haldane: `something like the transition from amoeba to man goes on in every mother's womb in a mere nine months'.
Natural selection is not only destructive (survival of the fittest). It can also be constructive through gene cooperation, for instance in the `tracking' of a changing environment.
Other items are macromutation, the problem of speciation, sexual and asexual reproduction, sexual attraction and selection (`living and the struggle for survival are only means for one end: reproduction'), embryology, and the reasons why Darwinism is still not universally accepted and even attacked (for religious, ideological or political purposes).
There is, however, one crucial point that the author couldn't solve (for the moment) and for which he can only give some hints: how did the process eventually start on earth?
A convincing try was made by the Dutch scientist S.T. Bok in his book `De oorsprong van het leven' (The origin of life'. Unfortunately, his book has never been translated.
This book is a must read for all those interested in life on earth, because `Darwinism is the bedrock of all human disciplines, for all human works are products of the brain.'
And, as another great Darwinist, G.C. Williams, has said more provocatively: `natural selection, albeit stupid, is a story of unending arms races, slaughter and suffering. It is a law of nature and its immorality has to be accepted and, at least, to be thought about. `
More The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Summary of The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design
Patiently and lucidly, this Los Angeles Times Book Award and Royal Society of Literature Heinemann Prize winner identifies the aspects of the theory of evolution that people find hard to believe and removes the barriers to credibility one by one. "As readable and vigorous a defense of Darwinism as has been published since 1859."--The Economist.Richard Dawkins is not a shy man. Edward Larson's research shows that most scientists today are not formally religious, but Dawkins is an in-your-face atheist in the witty British style:
I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence.
The title of this 1986 work, Dawkins's second book, refers to the Rev. William Paley's 1802 work, Natural Theology, which argued that just as finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must exist, the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists. Not so, says Dawkins: "All appearances to the contrary, the only watchmaker in nature is the blind forces of physics, albeit deployed in a very special way... it is the blind watchmaker."
Dawkins is a hard-core scientist: he doesn't just tell you what is so, he shows you how to find out for yourself. For this book, he wrote Biomorph, one of the first artificial life programs. You can check Dawkins's results on your own Mac or PC.
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Books explaining why Your Religion Is False
The God Who Wasn't ThereRelease date: 2005-08-23; Published: 2005-06-06; DVD
Best price: $14.08
Price in other shops:
Letter to a Christian Nation (Vintage)by Sam Harris
Vintage; Published: 2008-01-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.66
Price in other shops:
The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Designby Richard Dawkins
W.W. Norton & Co.; Published: 1996-09-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everythingby Christopher Hitchens
Twelve; Published: 2009-04-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.91
Price in other shops:
Your Religion Is Falseby Joel Grus
Brightwalton LLC; Published: 2009-06-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.45
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbelieverby Christopher Hitchens
Da Capo Press; Published: 2007-11-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Loveby Richard Dawkins
Mariner Books; Published: 2004-10-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reasonby Sam Harris
W. W. Norton; Published: 2005-10-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.48
Price in other shops:
Letter to a Christian Nation (Vintage)by Sam Harris
Vintage; Published: 2008-01-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.92
Price in other shops:
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everythingby Christopher Hitchens
Twelve Books, Hachette Book Group; Published: 2007-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.49
Price in other shops:
The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene (Popular Science)by Richard Dawkins
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1999-08-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.70
Price in other shops:
Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonderby Richard Dawkins
Mariner Books; Published: 2000-04-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.53
Price in other shops:
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolutionby Richard Dawkins
Mariner Books; Published: 2005-09-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.48
Price in other shops:
The God Delusionby Richard Dawkins
Mariner Books; Published: 2008-01-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Authorby Richard Dawkins
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2006-05-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.51
Price in other shops: