4,5
Best Edition The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design with FREE MOBI EDITION Download Now!
Richard Dawkins’s classic remains the definitive argument for our modern understanding of evolution.The Blind Watchmaker is the seminal text for understanding evolution today. In the eighteenth century, theologian William Paley developed a famous metaphor for creationism: that of the skilled watchmaker. In The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins crafts an elegant riposte to show that the complex process of Darwinian natural selection is unconscious and automatic. If natural selection can be said to play the role of a watchmaker in nature, it is a blind one—working without foresight or purpose.In an eloquent, uniquely persuasive account of the theory of natural selection, Dawkins illustrates how simple organisms slowly change over time to create a world of enormous complexity, diversity, and beauty.
At this time of writing, The Audiobook The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design has garnered 9 customer reviews with rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Not a bad score at all as if you round it off, it’s actually a perfect TEN already. From the looks of that rating, we can say the Audiobook is Good TO READ!
Best Edition The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design with FREE MOBI EDITION!
With a topic like evolution / intelligent design, you are bound to get some blind 5 star reviews from people who believe the general idea of evolution without really understanding it, and some blind 1-2 star reviews from people who do not actually WANT to understand it but to find ways to discredit it. Ignore both kinds of review. There's another group of reviewers who might give a lower rating on the premise that the work is not empirical enough or rigorous enough; those people have misunderstood the purpose of this book.WHAT TO EXPECTThe context and tone of this book are conversational in nature, even if the core ideas are derived from an array of scientific inquiry over the last 150 years. Imagine the author sitting in a coffee shop with you during a bad rain storm (so you've got time), hoping to explain why the main tenets of evolution are important and worth understanding, and why many of the opposing theories are lesser theories from a scientific standpoint, and you will understand the purpose of this book.It's not hard to see why this work is has been deemed a "classic". Dawkins weaves an interesting and detailed account of the basic principles underlying evolution, including dispelling common misunderstandings like the idea that natural selection is a random process (i.e. conflating genetic mutation — random — with natural selection in favor of specific kinds of mutations — not random). No degrees in molecular biology, genetics, or zoology are required to understand the basic principles described in the book, though you may find that afterward you have a desire to find and order books about these topics (I did). There are also some laugh out-loud passages which I did not expect. While he does at various points veer off-course and ramble a bit (who doesn't), the old saw about babies and bathwater clearly applies (and not much bathwater at that).In short if the average reader approaches with an open mind, you cannot help but end up with a better understanding of evolution than when you started, regardless of whether or not you personally find every argument made compelling (you're not a bad person if you don't, nor virtuous if you do). We need to learn to debate these things without the toxicity applied.PERSONAL TAKEAWAYSWhile most of the key mechanisms of evolution are known and their effects observable with modern technology (e.g. reading and comparing the genome of two suspected but not obviously related species) and/or through our robust understanding of molecular biology, there are parts of the theory that remain unproven. More specifically, formal proofs of concept of the origins of the first self-replicating cells. This is not unexpected given the time scales involved and the very incomplete fossil record that we have (unfortunately many kinds of things that we would need to study fossils OF, don't actually fossilize when they die). This is also where the typical "God of the Gaps" arguments made by many intelligent design (or ID) supporters originate. Which for many of them amounts to "you can't show me definitive proof today of how certain kinds of cells came into being 4 billion years ago, ergo this entire theory is flawed / false." Which is, on its face, absurd.If I believe at all in the value of scientific inquiry and thinking, then I must admit that two things are true:1) there is by now a literal mountain of empirical evidence — in several related scientific fields, ranging from physics to physiology — that points directly to the cellular machinery of what we call "evolution" at work, over very long time scales, in every kind of living thing. To deny the validity of the core parts of evolution, is about as foolish as an educated person choosing to believe that an entire political party is filled with devil-worshipping baby-eaters, despite there being no wide-scale reports of satanic altars and missing babies that we know of;2) In a wide array of scientific fields, we have scenarios where some parts of a theory are definitively known and proven and others not yet proven (i.e. proven in the same way science has proven than atoms can be split and tornadoes are formed when certain kinds of frontal boundaries collide with one another under specific conditions), and evolution is one of these fields. Admitting that something is unknown is NOT tantamount to admitting it is invalid! : ) There remain problems unsolved / proofs unmade; that is OK. It means we have work to do.Imagine this conversation between two people (two scientists if you like, no need to make it a scientist and a minister, for example):"You say we can see from countless optical telescope (and other) observations and crunching of data according to the laws of physics that have been proven valid many thousands of times over, that there is evidence of an unseen type of mass in the universe, that effects everything from the appearance of distant objects in optical telescopes (gravitational lensing) to how galaxies interact, but because you can't show me a visible proof this source of mass exists, I must conclude your entire interconnected theory of solar systems and galaxies and galaxy clusters, and how they interact, is false." Absurd right? That's what many (not all) ID proponents do with evolution (the lack of visible evidence in our example is the analog to the lack of a proven, molecular definition of the first self-replicating cell and its surrounding conditions).And that leads me to the last point, which is over the last 20 years or so, molecular biologists, molecular engineers, and evolutionary biologists have been generating ever-more-compelling test results in controlled lab conditions, of self-contained, self-replicating cells arising from nothing but simple organic compounds, elemental catalysts, and different forms of energy. They're not there yet, but one by one the technical hurdles are falling; the cells we're capable of generating today are much more robust than when we started 20 years ago. It would be great, therefore, to see Dawkins or perhaps his favored understudy, either re-write portions of this book to include these developments (a lot has happened n biology and genetics since the 90s, including things like systems theory), or write a new book with the same general scope and audience.
Related Ebook :
Read
Mobi Elaine's: The Rise of One of New York's Most Legendary Restaurants from Those Who Were There with FREE EASY Reading Download Now!
Read
Audio Book The Quick and the Dead: Total Training for the Advanced Minimalist with FREE MOBI EDITION Download Now!
Read
Best Edition The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and Regeneration to Slow Aging, Fight Disease, and Optimize Weight with Free EASY Reading Download Now!
Read
Mobi The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World with FREE MOBI EDITION Download Now!
Read
Mobi The Wisdom of a Broken Heart: An Uncommon Guide to Healing, Insight, and Love with Free EASY Reading Download Now!
Read
PDF Muted (The Dimity Horse Mysteries Book 1) with Free EASY Reading Download Now!
Read
Audio Book Por Qué Los Hombres Aman a Las Cabronas: Nueva Edicion- Guia Sencilla, Divertida y Picante Para el Juego de la Seducción / Why Men Love Bitches - Spanish Edition with FREE MOBI EDITION Download Now!
Read
PDF Bigger Leaner Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body (Muscle for Life Book 1) with Free PDF EDITION Download Now!
Read
PDF Scaling Up Compensation: 5 Design Principles for Turning Your Largest Expense into a Strategic Advantage with Free PDF EDITION Download Now!
Read
Mobi The Social Skills Guidebook: Manage Shyness, Improve Your Conversations, and Make Friends, Without Giving Up Who You Are with FREE MOBI EDITION Download Now!
Post a Comment