Saturday 30 October 2010

The Greatest Show on Earth - Book Review

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was reading this book...well, I have now! I just wish I had read it long before. It would have cleared up so many doubts, but there you go, better late than never.

OK, onto the business of reviewing:

“A beautiful and intelligent work on Evolution that
should finally put an end to the foolishness of creationism
 and intelligent design.”

This may be far-fetched wishful thinking on my behalf, but it is my conclusion after reading this enlightening book.

From plate-tectonics to the sex life of plants - from parasitic wasps to trees competing for sunlight- Richard Dawkins covers all the complexity of the origin of species, natural selection and nature with the skill set of an accomplished artist hell-bent on showing us his life's masterpiece.

I advise anyone who wishes to learn more about the origins of life to get this book and read it as soon as you can. You will enjoy the journey. I promise you will.

Onto the author now:

Richard Dawkins is one of my favourite thinkers and a man whose only agenda is to speak the truth. Like all  great scientist of the past, Prof. Dawkins is  interested in teaching as a means to counter-act the damage done by misinformation spread by religious movements.

...fighting his way through the history-denying
 crowds of ignorance...

R Dawkins is a brilliant scientist and, not surprisingly for a genius, an atheist, who is fighting his way through the history-denying crowds of ignorance with passion and conviction.

Prof. Dawkins, like many other academics, is horrified at the high percentage of people around the globe that don’t accept the fact-based teachings of science, but do the superstition-based religious mythical view of Creation.

'It is frightening to think that 40% of Americans don’t believe in evolution!' he states in the book. That figure is lower than all of the Muslim World but still much higher than the 9% or so of the northern Europeans.

In short, Richard Dawkins is as proud of his intellect as he is of his atheism, and I for one, am happy with that.
My own atheism was reached after much soul-searching and personal investigative work. For that, I am also proud and, immensely grateful to the great minds that have shaped me and led me to this conclusion; People like Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein and of course, my own family.

Keep up the good work Richard, never stop fighting ignorance. I look forward to your next book in anticipation. "March on secular soldier."

Happy reading friends  ;)
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