The Blind Watchmaker / by Richard Dawkins.   New York, W.W. Norton,
1986, 332 pages.

"We animals are the most complicated things in the known universe," 
begins Dawkins.  This great complication and complexity calls for 
explanation and only Darwinian natural selection--the "blind 
watchmaker"--is capable of doing the job.  One of Dawkins' main 
goals with this book is frankly polemical, or persuasive:

"I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian 
worldview  happens  to be true, but that it is the only known 
theory that  could , in principle, solve the mystery of our 
existence."

These are strong claims, and they deserve a careful, critical 
response.  Dawkins spars with creationists and theories of creation 
throughout this book, and we should answer him.  For instance, what 
do his computer simulations (in chapters 3 and 4)  really  
demonstrate?  Adaptation and evolution, or just clever but 
biologically meaningless programming tricks?  How  did  bats (his
opening example) evolve, anyway?  Why does the chapter on the origin
of life (no. 6) sound suspiciously like special pleading?  And so
on.  Dawkins writes with admirable clarity, and is refreshingly,
even bluntly, honest about his intentions. Get this book, and be
prepared to argue.


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