Over the past few years my feelings towards religion and, most especially, creationism, has slowly soured. Not that I had a high regard for either to begin with, but over the last three years or so in particular my disdain for both has become highly fortified. I've gone from being largely agnostic in my opinion of whether or not some sort of deity or god exists to being, for all intent and purposes, completely atheistic. Don't, however, mistake me for being intolerant, for that is most definitely not that case. I have absolutely no problem with people practising their religion so long as they do not force their beliefs on myself and the rest of society through legislation. Nor do I have anything against the individuals who belong to the various faiths around the world lest their faith has lead them to be bigots. I also understand that many individuals have had little control whatsoever over whether or not they would grow to be strongly religious; strong indoctrination, especially if it has taken place as a child, isn't something one breaks free of very easily, I'm afraid, and most especially if the individual in question has little interest in constant education and the pursuit of knowledge and reason, which has always been religion's greatest enemies. That being said, allowing one's self to be predisposed against their fellow human beings simply because they are religious is utterly pathetic.
My less-than-fond feelings towards religion and creationism, over time, eventually lead me to watch a lot of content on YouTube in which the world's religions found themselves subject to constant debate. Many of these debates lead me to take an interest in other subjects such as biology and evolution, which, as we all know, are not exactly in line with creationism. I began to learn a lot about evolution and often found myself arguing in it's favour when making comments on certain videos on YouTube, but I soon began to feel that, if I was going to be making arguments in favour of evolution, I should take the time to understand it better. And so, last year, I decided to start at the beginning, so to speak, and purchased a copy of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, which, of course, is where the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection was originally set out.
Reading The Origin of Species helped me understand evolution much better than I already had and strengthened my interest in learning more about it. It was, at times, a difficult read, but not so difficult that the average everyday person isn't able to understand it, after all, The Origin of Species was in no way written exclusively for the benefit of the highly educated, but for anybody who wished to read and understand it. After I had finished reading it I didn't read any other books concerning evolution for quite a while, but after Christmas I decided to buy Richard Dawkins' latest book The Greatest Show on Earth, which is the reason I've started this blog entry in the first place.
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution is, as it's title suggests, a book in which the evidence for evolution is clearly set out for the reader to consider (as if consideration were needed) and to help them understand evolution better then they may already. I feel sure that it would also have been the author's intent to help those whom possess little or no understanding of evolution to understand the theory as well, and to convince those whom deny evolution's validity, due to having received inadequate education of, or being predisposed to have feelings against, the subject, of it's truth. That being said, the book's content has mainly been set out to show why evolution is true – to show how we know it to be true – which it does very well.
Personally I found The Greatest Show on Earth was as great a read as I had hoped it would be. Unlike most books which are meant to educate the reader, I found that when I sat down to read it I didn't want to put it down. It's written in a manner which makes it easy to understand, which is essential for a book aimed at the everyday reader. It not only increased my understanding of the Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection, but of many other subjects which I have found interest in but have never understood as well as I would like. Within it's pages it includes chapters which deal with many subjects that confirm evolution to be true, subjects such as radiometric dating and embryology.
I would recommend The Greatest Show on Earth to anybody who has an interest in learning about The Theory of Evolution or anybody who has very little knowledge of the subject regardless of whether it interests them or not. In fact, there is not a single book out there that is meant to educate it's reader that I wouldn't recommend to everybody in general. Knowledge sets the mind free, but most importantly it has the effect smothering ignorance, which, if one is to truly think about it, can honestly be considered the root of all the human race's problems. I enjoyed reading The Greatest Show on Earth so much I decided I'd like to read the rest of Richard Dawkins' work, as well. So, once again, I decided to start at the beginning by purchasing the 30th Anniversary Edition of The Selfish Gene, which is Richard Dawkins' first book, originally published in 1976.
My less-than-fond feelings towards religion and creationism, over time, eventually lead me to watch a lot of content on YouTube in which the world's religions found themselves subject to constant debate. Many of these debates lead me to take an interest in other subjects such as biology and evolution, which, as we all know, are not exactly in line with creationism. I began to learn a lot about evolution and often found myself arguing in it's favour when making comments on certain videos on YouTube, but I soon began to feel that, if I was going to be making arguments in favour of evolution, I should take the time to understand it better. And so, last year, I decided to start at the beginning, so to speak, and purchased a copy of The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, which, of course, is where the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection was originally set out.
Reading The Origin of Species helped me understand evolution much better than I already had and strengthened my interest in learning more about it. It was, at times, a difficult read, but not so difficult that the average everyday person isn't able to understand it, after all, The Origin of Species was in no way written exclusively for the benefit of the highly educated, but for anybody who wished to read and understand it. After I had finished reading it I didn't read any other books concerning evolution for quite a while, but after Christmas I decided to buy Richard Dawkins' latest book The Greatest Show on Earth, which is the reason I've started this blog entry in the first place.
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution is, as it's title suggests, a book in which the evidence for evolution is clearly set out for the reader to consider (as if consideration were needed) and to help them understand evolution better then they may already. I feel sure that it would also have been the author's intent to help those whom possess little or no understanding of evolution to understand the theory as well, and to convince those whom deny evolution's validity, due to having received inadequate education of, or being predisposed to have feelings against, the subject, of it's truth. That being said, the book's content has mainly been set out to show why evolution is true – to show how we know it to be true – which it does very well.
Personally I found The Greatest Show on Earth was as great a read as I had hoped it would be. Unlike most books which are meant to educate the reader, I found that when I sat down to read it I didn't want to put it down. It's written in a manner which makes it easy to understand, which is essential for a book aimed at the everyday reader. It not only increased my understanding of the Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection, but of many other subjects which I have found interest in but have never understood as well as I would like. Within it's pages it includes chapters which deal with many subjects that confirm evolution to be true, subjects such as radiometric dating and embryology.
I would recommend The Greatest Show on Earth to anybody who has an interest in learning about The Theory of Evolution or anybody who has very little knowledge of the subject regardless of whether it interests them or not. In fact, there is not a single book out there that is meant to educate it's reader that I wouldn't recommend to everybody in general. Knowledge sets the mind free, but most importantly it has the effect smothering ignorance, which, if one is to truly think about it, can honestly be considered the root of all the human race's problems. I enjoyed reading The Greatest Show on Earth so much I decided I'd like to read the rest of Richard Dawkins' work, as well. So, once again, I decided to start at the beginning by purchasing the 30th Anniversary Edition of The Selfish Gene, which is Richard Dawkins' first book, originally published in 1976.
