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The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
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The Blind Watchmaker
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Publisher's Summary
The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte. Natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind, yet essentially nonrandom process Darwin discovered - is the blind watchmaker in nature.
Editorial reviews
Richard Dawkins and his wife, actor Lalla Ward, give a highly entertaining read of Dawkins's 1986 critique of creationism, The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design. The audiobook follows an updated edition of the book from 2006 and provides intricate explanations, by way of witty examples, of why random, infinitesimal gene changes over millions of years have produced us and the world we live in. Dawkins's writing contains a self-deprecating, dry sense of humor that comes to life as he reads his best-selling book. Alternating voices between Dawkins and Lalla Ward provides nice listening contrast while also setting apart examples, clarifications, and segments of greater detail. Dawkins and his wife live in a world that is perhaps more scientific on a daily basis than ours so the book takes great care to vary the delivery of information for greater emphasis and easy understanding.
Dawkins's goal in The Blind Watchmaker is to "remove by explaining" any doubt that anything but scientific fact is behind the origin of the universe. Just because something — like human beings or the universe — is complex does not mean that it cannot be explained. Dawkins works hard to help listeners understand the smaller-than-microscopic changes that evolved through staggering amounts of time, changes humans have a hard time intuitively comprehending. To paraphrase the author, do not draw conclusions from your own inability to understand something. The truth of Darwinism comes in its acceptance of physics, probability, and the unending march of time. Dawkins helps listeners out by using examples that are easier to grasp: for example, the evolution from wolves to domesticated dogs. Or how echo location in bats clearly shows the evolution of a trait necessary for survival of a species.
The Blind Watchmaker, read by the author and by Lalla Ward, is an example of an audiobook best listened to while not driving or operating anything requiring devoted attention. Dawkins calls upon us to think about complex concepts that are not necessarily part of daily life. Led by the author, The Blind Watchmkaer is a lively, humorous explanation of the seemingly mystical yet ultimately understandable maze of evolution that is our world. Along the way it is nice to know that a scientist such as Dawkins can, like us, forget to save information on his computer. Re-creation of his data simply leads to another example of probability and complexity that makes, as Dawkins reiterates, the circumstances of any of us being here surprisingly unique, but scientifically not unusual. —Carole Chouinard
Critic Reviews
What listeners say about The Blind Watchmaker
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ben
- 14-06-2019
A must read for everyone to full understand Darwin
it should be requisite reading/listening for every school student to dispel myth and encourage full understanding of the science underpinning life itself.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- carrolyn
- 08-01-2023
Fascinating
I have very little formal science education but love science documentaries from biology to cosmology. I really enjoyed this book. It's content not only taught me new things but it's concepts encouraged me to think in new ways.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Morgan James
- 14-02-2018
Clear narration, well written
Clear narration. Interesting ideas presented well. The presence of some unnecessary rants detracted from 5 star rating.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Tracey_Potts
- 16-01-2018
The watchmaker was blind, but the author is not!
Exceptional book, a great selection in every way! It requires your full attention and some sections require a second listen to absorb it complexity.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Steven
- 27-04-2016
Heavy, heavy going
This book is not for the faint of heart, and requires some prior genetics knowledge.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jaswant Jonnada
- 24-05-2018
Perfect guide of evolution with natural selection
I liked this book a lot. The selfish gene was too technical, but this was much high level. Waiting for the extended phenotype audio book to be published
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Miti
- 28-12-2020
Natural selection vs randomness
I think the most important thing that the book says is that natural selection is not same as randomness
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrey
- 08-04-2018
Must read
Great book that helps you understand how evolution works through helpful analogies. It also tells about other hypotheses and proves them wrong. The narration by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward is excellent.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Luke
- 23-02-2016
very indepth
Dawkins gives a brilliant explaination of evolution thats in depth. He considers other theories and explains why natural selection is how life evolved here on earth. an excellent book.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- John
- 10-07-2018
good reading, but hard to keep track
good performance
hard to keep track all the terminology, groups and theories. needs an accompanying summary/ terminology pdf
could also do with update re modern DNA understanding and data compression/encoding
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