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The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design 339 reviews
Richard Dawkins
W. W. Norton, 1996
A Good Introduction To and Defense of Evolution
This book is another fine effort by Richard Dawkins to explain how the complexity of life can be explained by evolution including natural selection. He uses his usual detailed, but laymen type of explanation to explore how various attributes of animals (and man) have come about.
The books closing chapters deal with some of the other theories that exist to try to explain the diversity of life. ...
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Everything You Know About God Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Religion 11 reviews
The Disinformation Company, 2007
Essential Reading
This book is highly recommended for just one of it's many sections - I am referring to the article by Ruth Green entitled "The God From Galilee" which analyses the gospels in a way that reveals a very different side to Jesus Christ than that with which most people (believers and non-believers alike) identify. I used to say that, speaking as an atheist, I was mostly in agreement with what Jesus ...
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The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution 172 reviews
Richard Dawkins
Mariner Books, 2005
Delightful
This book is an extremely enjoyable and edifying read. Dawkins writes with wit, fluency, clarity and erudition; very readable, though people without much biology background might find it tough going at times. I can hear Dawkins' voice as I read; the writing has that flowing conversational style. I'm going to hate to see this one end. I wish there were a million more books like this one, and that ...
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The God Delusion1201 reviews
Richard Dawkins
Mariner Books, 2008
Eye opener even for current non-believers
First of all, I can't help but wonder how many of the one star reviewers actually read the book. Saying the author is going to hell is NOT a review.
Anyway, maybe I should judge, because i don't plan on getting into detail about the book. I will say though, that this book is not only a great read, but a truly eye opening and interesting read.
If you have doubts about the religion that was ...
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The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author278 reviews
Richard Dawkins
Oxford University Press, USA, 2006
One of those milestone books
I love the way Richard Dawkins writes. Highly logical, and always covering his tracks to avoid misinterpretation as is so likely to happen in this case. I loved the second chapter. For a long time I had wondered how evolutionary theory could explain the beginning of life. That insurmountable mountain is truly difficult to climb. But this book seemed to have a plausible answer. In his second ...
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Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder96 reviews
Richard Dawkins
Mariner Books, 2000
A tour de force of scientific reasoning
After reading Richard Dawkins lucid explanation of why things are they way they are, the rainbow seems even more beautiful. The book is yet another example of Richard Dawkins' ability to eloquently provide simplified and lucid explanations to the wonders around us without resorting to the fantastic.
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The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing 3 reviews
Oxford University Press, USA, 2008
If this book doesn't jump start your interest in science, you just might be a redneck....
Dawkins' frequently claims that there is a much richer contemplative nature to a scientific view of the universe than in a view dominated by a "notion of a 'supreme being'." This anthology delivers the punch to this claim and does so with an amazing spectrum of ideas. If science were the basis of theology, this anthology contains the kind of writing one might read. This is not a collection ...
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The Meme Machine87 reviews
Susan Blackmore
Oxford University Press, USA, 2000
An aid to understanding thought contagion
Blakemore's book endeavors towards two goals:
1) A recapping of the origins of meme theory...which she does exceedingly well and
2) Humble suggestions on the place of memes in consciousness...where she seems to stumble.
In relation to her first goal, Blakemore admirably retraces the work of the likes of Richard Dawkins and Dan Dennett. For his part, Dawkins coined the term "meme" in ...
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The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene (Popular Science)37 reviews
Richard Dawkins
Oxford University Press, USA, 1999
More delving for truth, less bashing falsehood
Lots of people seem to know about Dawkins as a Enthusiastic Bright, or at least as a 'staunch atheist'. Selfish Gene takes digs at religion. Blind Watchmaker certainly takes digs at religion. Ancestor's Tale even seems to have some (though I've not got all through it yet.) I haven't even opened "The God Delusion" yet, and I can make a good guess about the digging I'll find there.
The Extended ...
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A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love53 reviews
Richard Dawkins
Mariner Books, 2004
Nobody does it better, but . . .
Richard Dawkins is more eloquent in explaining biology and more forthright in disparaging its critics than anyone else writing in English today. However, the Greeks said even Homer nods, and I want to pursue a thread in this collection of reviews, prefaces and articles where I think Dawkins does not follow his own argument.
A recurrent proposition in these essays is that humans evolved in ...
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The Theory of Evolution (Canto)2 reviews
John Maynard Smith
Cambridge University Press, 1993
One of the finest introductions to evolutionary science
This summary of evolutionary theory by the dean of the British school is essential reading for those who would understand the issues argued by Dawkins and Gould. It is an engrossing read, but is not trivially easy, despite having the appearance of a popularization. I would recommend it to anyone wanting more than a cursory overview of the most important theme of modern biology.
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Climbing Mount Improbable62 reviews
Richard Dawkins
W. W. Norton & Company, 1997
Evolution of eyes, spiderwebs, wings, and clamshells
Many people find it difficult to understand how complex structures like eyes and wings evolved through random evolution. Dawkins does a thorough job here laying out just how evolution works. He makes it clear that evolution is not random--it is the accumulation of gradual changes, over centuries and millenia. Mutations are random; evolution is not. Dawkins is very good at explaining how each ...
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The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution (Cambridge Reference Book)4 reviews
Cambridge University Press, 1994
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution
Excellent work. In depth treatment of the subject yet accesible to everyone.It covers every imaginable aspect of human evolution by the men and woman that are at the frontiers of this science.
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The Origin of Species and the Voyage of the Beagle5 reviews
Charles Darwin
Everyman's Library, 2003
Lots of Darwin
Origin of Species
This is a quick review of the book not a dissertation on Darwin or any other subject loosely related. At first I did not know what to expect. I already read " The Voyage of the Beagle: Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches". I figured the book would be similar. However I found "Origin" to be more complex and detailed.
Taking in account that recent pieces of knowledge ...
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On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin
CSA Word, 2008
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The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief6 reviews
Prometheus Books, 2007
Great reference
Just received this book and have skimmed over a lot of the history and the biographies of the people cited in the book. It is well put to gather and well thought out, I would recommend this to all atheists, agnostics and free thinkers who would like to catch up on famous and not so famous people who had the brains to think for themselves.
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God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory28 reviews
Niall Shanks
Oxford University Press, USA, 2007
Taking the ID movement to task!!
A very concise, succinct overview of this pernicious movement that seeks to undermine the very foundations of science. It's unfortunate that someone of Professor Shanks' stature must take the time to show how flawed the ID theory is. However, it's precisely what we need, when it's clear that the "methodological supernaturalists" or, more accurately, "right wing Christian dominionists" will ...
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River Out Of Eden: A Darwinian View Of Life (Science Masters Series)64 reviews
Richard Dawkins
Basic Books, 1996
DNA just is and we dance to its Music
As mentioned in other reviews of Dawkins's books I enjoy his writing and his passion for explaining science to the general public in an understandable way. I have given this book 5 stars because of the way he explain his arguments... although I don't agree with them. Now for a reply which is divided into the following parts:
1. Good Explanation of Mitochondrial Eve
2. Evolution in small ...
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Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists
Dan Barker
Ulysses Press, 2008
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Blind Watchmaker2 reviews
Richard Dawkins
Penguin, 2006
Greatest of all mysteries solved by Darwin & Wallace!
In The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins offers a great account of evolutionary theory. Richard Dawkins is not apologetic for being Darwinian. On the contrary, for him opposing Darwinism to Creationism is a false debate that is regressive and dangerous to humanity's progress. His primary purpose in "The Blind Watchmaker" is to dispense with such notions as purpose and intelligent design. He ...
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