If you ignore the religious implications of the book, it is the best explination of evolution available. If you want to understand, buy this book.


The most important book I have ever read   August 25, 2004
 6 out of 8 found this review helpful

I have a strong science background, so I was alway biased towards "answers" as opposed to "faith", but this book was such a clear and concise explanation of the subject matter I was almost shouting out loud as I read it. The book answers the very important (and perhaps, in everyday life, overlooked) question of where does all the complexity - the trees, animals etc - that surrounds us actually come from?

A small amount of thought will show that this is not a trivial question, one to which you might expect there is no "correct" answer. However, this book shows that such an answer does exist, and what is more, that the alterante solutions proposed are completely inadaquate. The answer is of course evolution mediated by natural selection - Darwinism.

With the level of willfull ignorance of scientific, indeed rational thinking, that is prevalent (Even fashionable) in western society today, here is the antidote! Irrifutable (sp?), logical arguments, that you don't need a degree to understand, opening up such a panaroma of wonder about the natural world.

When I rule the world, this book will be required reading for EVERYONE!


Paley would have cried   August 18, 2004
 2 out of 4 found this review helpful

As the book unfolds, Dawkins systematically and completely sets forth the argument for evolution that leaves no stone unturned and no critic unanswered. It is a pleasurable and enlightening read. When discussing the book recently I posed the question, 'What would Paley (the creationist who formulated the watchmaker theory) have thought?' The answer, 'He would have cried.' Such is the impact of this book.


A Classic   June 27, 2004
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

In The Blind Watchmaker Richard Dawkins makes a magnificent case for the Darwinian view of evolution by Natural Selection. All alternative theories are dismissed by rational argument and his book is extremely persuasive and extremely readable.

Natural Selection is virtually unique among modern scientific theories in being very conceptually straightforward (although so counter-intuitive that it took millennia for anyone to think of it). This has the advantage that the theory is very accessible to the lay reader, but that is to take nothing away from Dawkin's brilliance.

This isn't just a rehash of Darwin's original work, as so much has been learnt since that time about genetics, as well as many other developments in life sciences in over a century; but it deserves to stand alongside it as a classic of modern times.


I actually read the book   April 28, 2004
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

As someone who is a statician at heart I found Dawkins book refreshing hisexplanation of probabilty using very large numbers showing how there hadbeen plenty of time for us to develop from simple bacteria and heillustrates many potential strands of this development with reasonableevidence. The logic is compelling and the evidence (even before the latestgenetic research) is well identified.
There are faults, the comparisonwith other evolution theories is obviously important but perhaps a bitabrasive. I am sure that Darwin's theory is capable of improvement as areall scientific theories. Also some of the points are made veryheavily.
He also glides over the point where life started in thisworld, I suppose that is one area more deduced than known about.
The dismissal of religions compared to Darwinism seems fair as at leastthere is scientific evidence for Darwin's theory and none that I know offor any religion, however I can see that the 90% of the population whohave adopted their local tribal culture maybe upset by this.
Overall acombination of statistics, physics biology and logic which produces both acompelling read and argument.