The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design by Richard Dawkins Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
Book Review: Start reading it at chapter 4
Summary: 5 Stars
The first 3 chapters are tedious. They seem long and you don't get a lot out of them. It talks about the evolution simulation program he made and his experiments with them. Yet, on chapter 4 the reading material that makes Dawkins such a good author appears. It is simply a feast for the mind.Also, read Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins. This also is a very, very good book.
I would recommend you jot little notes when reading his books so that you can easily refer back to it. His books are intensely packed with valuable information.
Book Review: The best introduction to evolution written in years.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Blind Watchmaker is by far the best overview of evolution I have read, Darwin notwithstanding. Dawkins' analysis is sharp and his writing both clear and amusing. I'm not saying it's a perfect book; he spends too much time on his biomorphs, for instance. But overall, it's a remarkably consistent work and filled with fascinating examples, from bats to fish to insects. And it's gratifying to see that in the last chapter, Dawkins doesn't pull his punches when explaining why Lamarckism and creationism aren't adequate explanations of life as we know it.I know "The Selfish Gene" made Dawkins' reputation, and he himself says "The Extended Phenotype" is his best book, but if you've never read any of Dawkins' books, this is the place to start.
Best line: "...living organisms exist for the benefit of DNA, not the other way around." From the "Power and the Archives" chapter.
Book Review: Excellent book
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Blind Watchmaker" explains how complicated life forms can arise through natural processes. This is an excellent book on evolution. I also recommend "The Bible According to Einstein" and "Wonderful Life", although. the latter is somewhat specific to the Cambrian explosion. The former complements "The Blind Watchmaker" in that "The Bible According to Einstein" provides a wonderful *narration* of the history of life on Earth.Book Review: The Truth is Not Negotiable
Summary: 5 Stars
Coupled with Jacques Monod's "Chance and Necessity," these two books present an irrefutable proof of a universe without design (or a Designer). Not only is the cold hard logic unassailable, but the authors take great pains to describe in detail all of the intermediate steps that have led to where we are today, here and now. Anybody who is confused about "irreducible complexity" or the seeming intelligent design of the universe need only sit down with these two mind-expanding books.
You will be transformed.
Book Review: Author assumes evolution is fact, as if omniscient himself
Summary: 2 Stars
Let me be clear. I am not an expert in any of the many disciplines that the theory of evolution covers, nor did I read more than about 5 chapters of the book. But I was educated to believe that Darwinism is fact, and the facts as I see them now is that Darwinism is far from fact, and has been almost thoroughly discredited as a theory of everything, everything that it purports to explain. For example, the fossil record shows stasis, not mutation, in the overwhelming majority of cases. Even Stephen Gould has had to admit this. For more details, anyone not completely convinced that the theory of evolution is the only truth about life's mysteries, will find many books. My favorite is "Darwin On Trial," by Professor Phillip Johnson.
This is not to say that evolution doesn't occur, it does w/o a doubt, but it simply does NOT explain the development of all organisms and their incredible complexities, not to my satisfaction.
There is a certain omniscient tone in Mr. Dawkins's writing that I find quite repugnant. He writes like he knows w/o a doubt that there is no Creator, a strange paradox indeed. As other reviewers have stated, he assumes evolution is a fact and argues from that point. And who can "prove" what is right here? None of us saw any of these (large-scale) evolutionary changes happen, gradual or not, and as a number of authors have stated, Darwinian evolution itself clearly requires its own kind of faith to be accepted. I feel that anyone with an open mind would admit that the notion of a Creator is just as feasible as the so-called mysterious hand of random mutation and natural selection. I feel that a person would have to be an all-knowing being himself to be able to state with 100% certainty that there was/is no Creator.
Science in of itself denies the notion of a supernatural Creator, science always looks for a natural explanation. And just because scientists can explain something, that doesn't mean it is necessarily proven, not at all.
The dangerous corollary to Darwinian evolution as a theory that explains all of life is that there is no meaning to life, no "spiritual" meaning anyway. For those who want "proof" that there is spiritual meaning, ask yourself deep in your heart, is there some "Higher" meaning to life? If you have already decided that the heart is nothing more than an organ which has no purpose other than to pump blood, or if you can honestly say that you get no answer, then I guess you can be content, no, as certain as the author of this book is, that all of life is just a meaningless, random assemblage of physical components that through "blind" chance somehow evolved by itself to complexity.
Fortunately, I believe that if there is a Creator, It doesn't really care what we believe, It cares what kind of people we are and what virtues we embody.