Off The Bookshelf US -Books The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design New & Used The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design Books CDS DVD's Nusic Electronics

Search Books - select a category

Buy The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design online at Discounted New and Used prices. Delivered to your door with Off-The-Bookshelf.

The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
by: Richard Dawkins

List Price: $15.95

Off The Bookshelf's Price: $13.72

You Save: $2.23 (14%)
Prices subject to change.

Used Price: $7.12
Collectible Price: $249.99
Third Party New Price: $9.24

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 576.82
EAN: 9780393315707
ISBN: 0393315703
Label: W. W. Norton
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: September 19, 1996
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Studio: W. W. Norton
Sales Rank: 4452

Related Items:

The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author

The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Editorial Review:

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.

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.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Good read, but I want more
I bought "The Blind Watchmaker" because I wanted to read something from the "other side", having read several books with a Christian leaning (that basically just try to trash evolution, without offering anything realistic in return). I wanted information about how evolution explains how we got here (and maybe also why Christianity or other creation-based views have it wrong). I did find some very good stuff, but - as with all other religious books that I've read - whatever the evidence, the author interprets it in line with his beliefs, even when an alternative seems more reasonable. The book contains a believable and understandable explanation of the mechanics of how evolution could have produced us as we are now. But it sheds no light on the question of where the spark of life itself came ... Read More

Rating:

- The Blind Watchmaker/The Biblical Basis for Modern Science
There are two sides to every story and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I believe it's the same with Creation and Evolution and this review takes this approach on both books which I both give five stars. When it comes to Evolution Richard Dawkins' book "The Blind Watchmaker" does an excellent job of putting forward and explaining the case for evolution. Henry Morris in his book "The Biblical Basis for Modern Science" also does an excellent job of putting forward the creationist's argument for creation. I believe if you buy both these two books you will be able to see both sides of the debate and then you can make up your own mind where the truth lies.

If the Holy Bible is true then science will agree with the Bible and evolution is false because it contradicts the bible is ... Read More

Rating:

- A good introduction
This is a very good introduction to the concepts of evolution for someone who is new to the subject.

Rating:

- A good Dawkins primer
This is a truly wonderful place to start for anyone interested in Dawkins' series of forays into being human. Dense, but with some jargon and some lovely prose, it will educate even the most seasoned biology student.

Rating:

- Why Does Blind Produce Design?
The whole thesis of "The Blind Watchmaker" is that there is no design in nature.

Yet we see design everywhere: Is it merely an illusion?

The human body is an amazingly designed machine;

The biosphere of the earth is amazingly designed for human and animal life;

If natural selection is blind and random (and I concede that it is)how and why does it result in astonishingly designed organisms and environments?

I claim that Richard Dawkins has overlooked Factor X which fashions design from random selection or does he deny what his very eyes reveal?

His empirical data is persuasive in identifying Natural Selection as the mechanism behind the variety and complexity of living things, but how can
he deny that the result ... Read More

Books : The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design