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The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Richard Dawkins · 1 HN points · 2 HN comments
HN Books has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" by Richard Dawkins.
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Amazon Summary
Richard Dawkins transformed our view of God in his blockbuster, The God Delusion, which sold more than 2 million copies in English alone. He revolutionized the way we see natural selection in the seminal bestseller The Selfish Gene. Now, he launches a fierce counterattack against proponents of "Intelligent Design" in his latest New York Times bestseller, The Greatest Show on Earth. "Intelligent Design" is being taught in our schools; educators are being asked to "teach the controversy" behind evolutionary theory. There is no controversy. Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence—from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics—to make the airtight case that "we find ourselves perched on one tiny twig in the midst of a blossoming and flourishing tree of life and it is no accident, but the direct consequence of evolution by non-random selection." His unjaded passion for the natural world turns what might have been a negative argument, exposing the absurdities of the creationist position, into a positive offering to the reader: nothing less than a master’s vision of life, in all its splendor.
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If you enjoyed this, I highly recommend Dawkin's new book: The Great Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Earth-Evidence-Evolution...

The book, for example, contains a part of this interview.

But yeah, it's painful.

My favorite read in early 2009 was What Intelligence Tests Miss: The Psychology of Rational Thought by Keith Stanovich

http://www.amazon.com/What-Intelligence-Tests-Miss-Psycholog...

which is full of helpful information on developing the kind of cognition missed by IQ tests that constitutes rationality, very important information for parents, educators, and business leaders.

2009, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book On the Origin of Species, has been a banner year for new books on evolutionary biology. Some of my favorites include

Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-True-Jerry-Coyne/dp/0670...

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins

http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Earth-Evidence-Evolution...

and

Evolution: The First Four Billion Years edited by Michael Ruse and Joseph Travis.

http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-First-Four-Billion-Years/dp/...

All are full of up to date information about biology, which, as Thedosius Dobzhansky said, only makes sense in the light of evolution.

SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

http://www.amazon.com/SuperFreakonomics-Cooling-Patriotic-Pr...

is enjoyable and thought-provoking, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, for all the usual reasons applying to collaborations by those two authors.

Sep 24, 2009 · 1 points, 0 comments · submitted by MikeCapone
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