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Loading... The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (original 2009; edition 2010)by Richard Dawkins
Work InformationThe Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins (2009)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Dawkins always brilliantly defends evolution . He calims to be writinig for creationists, but any that picked the book up would probably soon desist due to the anger directed at them. It is not necessary to tear down the other side if you have all the evidence on your side. I think he should let it stand for itself.I understand ,however , that the worry is that people are being kept from learning about evolution, which is beautiful in and of itself. What greater argument is needed for peace and conservation than the fact that we, and by we I mean not just all people but all living things, are all related. ( ) Delivered with wit and clarity, Dawkins shares the facts of evolution in an easy-to-follow format that’s perfect for anyone looking to learn the basics of how we (and the rest of life) came to be. While he tackles a few common misconceptions and creationist arguments, Dawkins stays focused on the evidence we have and why we know evolution to be true. Turns out, life really is the greatest show on earth.
This brings me to the intellectual flaw, or maybe it’s a fault just of tone, in Dawkins’s otherwise eloquent paean to evolution: he has let himself slip into being as dogmatic as his opponents. He has become the Savonarola of science, condemning the doubters of evolution as “history-deniers” who are “worse than ignorant” and “deluded to the point of perversity.” This is not the language of science, or civility. Creationists insist evolution is only a theory, Dawkins that it’s only a fact. Neither claim is correct. The Greatest Show on Earth is Dawkins on top form: unambiguous, beautifully argued, with prose flowing like quicksilver. Though he looses a shock-and-awe flurry of evidentiary darts (natural selection, fossil records, molecular biology, and much more), he also mutes some of the shriller tendencies that have unhinged—or at least made hectoring and unlovely—his previous works. The result is a sweeping, wryly joyous case for rationality, empiricism, and no God on this green Earth.
References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English (13)Sifting through rich layers of scientific evidence, Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth" is a stunning counterattack on advocates of "Intelligent Design," explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist "argument." No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)576.8Natural sciences and mathematics Life Sciences, Biology Genetics and evolution EvolutionLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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