[ books ] The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins

[flaviomatani]

Just finished reading that. This is not going to be a review, just a couple of comments....

One thing: Dawkins is a very good writer when he's not ranting against religious people (I happen to agree with him in every point on the latter, but his style sometimes grates). He did get me very interested in what he had to say about the evidence for evolution. And his little side-stories and quips are very often entertaining and amusing.

The figure of 44% of Americans believing that the world was literally created less than 10000 years ago, complete with us and dinosaurs walking side by side, etc. This I find chilling. I could understand that a lot of people would, in a country in the grip of some backward religion... wait..

I suppose there is some deep resistance in many of us to the idea that our great-grandfather so many times over was something similar to an ape, something similar to a fish or a bacteria. It is so much better to believe that God created us to his image (and sent us out to vanquish those who didn't believe in him...)

I enjoyed the book enormously.

Comments

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it for the most part, I liked the new metaphors he used.

I wish he'd spend less time fighting with the opposition in his head though, he's a better writer than that - I seem to recall at one point he responds to the points made in a comments thread, which is the very definition of futility.

Ah well, I guess he's a grumpy old man now and that's not going to change any time soon!

[flavius-m.livejournal.com]

Indeed. On the other hand, I've been a grumpy ole man for a long time now and in that time I've changed a few times (not just socks...) :D

[scifi-mel.livejournal.com]

I like him. Having grown up among those crazy fundamentalist Christians it's lovely to here someone agree on how WRONG they are for putting kids through that. But he's also a great scientist. I saw ads on the tube for a book by him with illustrations by Dave Mckean which I really want to get

[flavius-m.livejournal.com]

That book looks interesting, and the illustrations for it. It is kind of a shame that all these things are for the most part preaching to the converted (perhaps I should use a different metaphor there...) but who knows. Looks like a beautiful book and probably will do some good.