The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design |  | Author: Richard Dawkins
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
List Price: $16.95
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Rating:  354 reviews
Sales Rank: 16278
Media: Paperback
Pages: 496
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0393315703
Dewey Decimal Number: 576.82
EAN: 9780393315707
ASIN: 0393315703
Publication Date: September 17, 1996
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Amazon.com Review
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.
Product Description
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.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 354
 Fatally Flawed! November 8, 2009
Reading Fan (Baltimore)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Richard Dawkins makes a strange and unconvincing case for the theory of evolution!
We are lucky to be here; but we're not here by chance! Yes, Richard Dawkins feels strongly both ways!
The eternal Watchmaker can't exist because even though there is a great `illusion of design', a Designer would need an even greater Designer. This certainly is not my definition of a Designer. He might want to check out `There is a God' by Antony Flew, touted as the `world's most notorious atheist' turned theist, who came up with some great philosophical arguments for theism after a 20-year study.
Against `unimaginable odds', natural selection through a patient natural sieving he calls cumulative selection, working with time and environment, is our very creator! Life is so complex (particularly DNA), it simply could not have happened accidentally. I can finally agree with him on this.
He doesn't explain, however, how life began, including non-material things such as consciousness and self. While we're at it, where did reproduction come from?
If you saw the movie called `Expelled', Ben Stein directly asks Dawkins how life started and he said he didn't know. Stein pressed him and he got a bit miffed, which is unusual for the mild-mannered Dawkins. It also begs the question of how the original stuff of the universe even came to be. How does evolution explain something coming from nothing? Sounds like a pretty shaky foundation to me.
If this is not a fatal flaw for the theory of evolution, I don't know what one is.
It's SCIENCE Folks! October 30, 2009
Truth seeker (Calif)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Forget the "Unintelligent Design" crowd, this is about what's real in terms of what we know about the universe we live in. I Mean, Really! Not that Noah had a Tyranosaurus Rex below decks (they actually claim that!)- I have always wondered which one of Noah's kids cleaned 'that particular' cage out. Nor do I think Hawkins here is all that egotistical, he's trying to point out 'his' way of viewing Darwinism and where he himself believes others have been misquoted or misunderstood (sometimes even by themselves). But the book is readable, funny; & down to earth (like Darwinism itself), and very understandable. For a science book it's up right up there in the league with Timothy Ferris' books on what we look up at; before our own gasses block those out. And there really is no need to debate online about, or with people who don't 'get it'. They have a right to their beliefs, as long as they don't try to shove them down our throats, or worse, the throats of school children (!) as "science"! They are like the members of the Scopps trial jury who after sending him off to prison (yes, movie aside;-he lost!), then went home to their farms in Tennessee, out back to breed their hunting dogs to get a 'better' coonhound; which is exactly the thing they denied mother nature or god the right to do! Like all extreme fundamentalists they take a sentence or phrase out of the bible or koran and 'bend it' to fit whatever they already believe, that's they way they work. So what if the stars & galaxies we see PROVE that the universe is billions & billions of years old (what did Einstein know!), it doesn't say so in 'their' book! Which is what happens when religion goes from a flexible oral tradition that can accommodate new information, to a Fixed Text with a last page! Anyway read Hawkins book, it's fascinating and the clearest thing you'll find on how we got to be who we are, and very, very readable! It took a very long time for our brains to get this big, Use them!
 Not what I expected October 26, 2009
G. R. Mann (Larned, KS United States)
The book is not bad, it is just not what I expected. It seemed like it was written for followers. Quite technical for the casual reader. I was looking for more justification for evolution over "intelligent design." It is in there but not for a casual reader.
 Great if you're interested in Atheism or Biology August 23, 2009
E. W. Iverson (Champaign, IL)
I bought this book as an exploration into Atheism, to see how they think about things. I'm about halfway through it right now, and I am loving every page. I started reading it to explore the ideas behind Atheism, but I keep turning the pages because I want to read more about the wondrous mechanisms of nature.
This is an outstanding book for the intelligent layman August 1, 2009
Jim Davis (Maryland Heights, MO USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's been in print so long that virtually everything that can be said about has been said about it.
That being the case here are my observations.
Don't expect to read this book quickly unless you're already well steeped in Darwinian theory. Be prepared to reread paragraphs to make sure you grasp their meaning. Some concepts are difficult to grasp. Dawkins realizes this (from personal experience, no doubt) and does repeat himself often but probably not often enough. Try to read this book at least a chapter at a time. This is not the kind of book you can stop at any point and easily pick it up again days later.
This is the type of book that requires a great deal of engagement on the part of the reader. You have to do a lot of thinking. In many respects Darwin is as hard to get one's arms around as Einstein.
In short, you'll get something out of this book only if you're prepared to invest something into it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 354
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