Blind Watchmaker (Paperback)

This book (first published in 1986) by Richard Dawkins (born: 1941) explains and "fine-tunes" for the general but educated reader Charles Darwin's (1809-1882) Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection.

This is not a definitive guide to evolutionary theory and the author explains this immediately: "This book is not a dispassionate scientific treatise. Other books on Darwinism [that is, Darwin's Theory of Evolution] are, and many of them...should be read in conjunction with this [book]."

What are the purposes and aims of this book? They are numerous and some are as follows:

(1) "To convey...the sheer wonder [or mystery] of biological complexity to those whose eyes have not been opened to it."
(2) "To remove [the mystery of (1) above]...by explaining the solution."
(3) "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."
(4) "To destroy [the]...myth that Darwinism is a theory of [random or blind] 'chance'."
(5) To help readers make the "leap" in logic that "complex [biological] 'design' [can] arise out of primeval simplicity" and that this complex design is not due to a "supernatural deity."

(6) "To resolve the paradox" that even though natural selection appears to have an ultimate goal (like a watchmaker whose goal is to make a working watch), it, in fact, does not. That is, "natural selection is the blind watchmaker."
(7) To help the reader answer questions like the following: "Could the human eye have arisen directly from no eye at all, in a single step?" or "Could the human eye have arisen directly from something slightly different from itself?"
(8) To underscore the importance of animal genetics (DNA, RNA, protein, genes) and animal embryology.
(9) To explain gene and environmental adaptation interaction.
(10) To explain that "events that are...called miracles are not supernatural, but are part of a spectrum of...improbable natural events."

(11) To explain the importance of geological time that is measured in eons or "thousands of millions of decades."
(12) To explain "that we don't need to postulate a designer in order to understand life, or anything else in the universe."
(13) To explain that "all animals and plants and bacteria, however different they appear to be from one another, are astonishingly uniform when we get down to molecular basics."
(14) To help the reader realize "that only natural selection can drive evolution in adaptive directions."

Dawkins in his very readable writing style fulfills all of these goals and, as well, he explains much more.

There are two aspects of this book I especially enjoyed:

(i) Dawkins selects certain anti-Darwinian arguments and analyzes them using the principles he has developed to show that they could not be true. In this way, the reader gets to practically use the information that Dawkins has introduced us too.

(ii) This book is filled with examples of various animals (including humans) that have undergone evolutionary change. These examples provide concrete validity to Darwin's theory.

The last chapter of this eleven chapter book is my favorite. It deals with rival theories to Darwinism. Such theories as 'mutationism' and creationism are analyzed and commented on.

There are three ways to improve this book so as to make reading it easier. First, Dawkins, when he presents unfamiliar terms initially, defines or explains them in his narrative. After this he assumes, when he presents these terms later on, that the reader will remember their definition accurately or take the time to look in earlier chapters to refresh his or her memory. For myself, this assumption was false. Thus a glossary at the end of the book would have been most helpful. Second, Dawkins explains everything in word pictures. I felt that clear, labelled drawings would have made key concepts easier to understand and decreased the amount of wordiness. Lastly, most chapters contain numerous elaborations, recapitulations, and digressions. I felt that each chapter could have been broken up into sections to accomodate this, thus allowing the reader to follow the discussion more easily.

Dawkins says that "even if there was no actual evidence in favor of the Darwinian theory...[then] we should still be justified in preferring it over all rival theories." I disagree with this statement and was surprised that Dawkins made it. The only reason this theory is preferred is that there is scientific evidence for it. Accepting a theory on the basis of no evidence is called (blind) faith.

Finally, Dawkins speaks of possible life elsewhere in the universe. Thus, once you read this book, I strongly recommend the book "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe" (2000) by scientists Ward and Brownlee.

In conclusion, this is an excellent book that makes Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection understandable. The single most exciting idea that you can take from this book is that the diversity of life we see around us is not incredible, but inevitable.

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