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The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Richard Dawkins

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Apr 14, 2011 David S. T. rated it really liked it

Shelves: science

This isn't the best introductory book I've read on evolution, Dawkins loves to insult the people who don't hold his views, goes way to far sometimes to get his point across and has a tendency to ramble on and mention interesting but irrelevant stuff. Once you get past the flaws this actually is a pretty good book, oddly by the end some of those qualities I hated about the book in the beginning, I started to appreciate more in the end (I kind of enjoy the almost pointless side stories and facts). This isn't the best introductory book I've read on evolution, Dawkins loves to insult the people who don't hold his views, goes way to far sometimes to get his point across and has a tendency to ramble on and mention interesting but irrelevant stuff. Once you get past the flaws this actually is a pretty good book, oddly by the end some of those qualities I hated about the book in the beginning, I started to appreciate more in the end (I kind of enjoy the almost pointless side stories and facts).

When I started reading this book, I put it down for a while because I got tired of the creationist rants, which apparently the high number of people who deny evolution is why this book is written. Dawkins even goes as far as comparing an evolution denier as the equivalent of someone denying the existence of the roman civilization or even worse a holocaust denier. I'm sorry but lacking the understanding or denying evolution is nothing like denying the holocaust. For one thing we've never really witnessed one animal evolving into another completely different species, meaning one "kind" into another "kind", in our lifetime (which is far too short of a time scale) or even more a bacteria evolving into a mammal, this doesn't mean evolution is false (its not), but it is far different than denying the holocaust. Anyways eventually I picked the book back up and it was far better as I got further into it. Also expect to hear the word “history-deniers” every few pages, I guess he wants us to remember just how terrible the evolution deniers are. Since this book is written to convince the 40% of American who deny evolution, Dawkins should realize by now that insulting your target audience isn't the best way to get them to listen to you. If anything his books do more help to the young earth creationist movement and intelligent design.

The subtitle of this book is “The Evidence for Evolution”, which is kind of an unfitting title, I found that Coyne's Why Evolution is True contains far more evidence in far fewer pages and is overall a better introduction to evolution. You see Dawkins often goes off on rants which do not to move the evidence along. For example in a chapter he discusses the age of the earth, he spends several pages discussing getting the age from tree rings. You see you can match the width of tree rings with others and go back to earlier dates, but then he says that the chain of tree rings goes back 11,000 years only, well the pages he spent on this argument do nothing to convince a young earth creationist of the age of the earth, in fact the argument works in their favor. The book is full of these little side notes and stories which causes the page numbers to go up, but the relevant information doesn't follow. Also expect tons of foot notes with mostly rants about TV shows he wants to be on, his childhood, or why we should call the Beijing Man, the Peking fossil, ect.

I know I've complained some but don't get me wrong, this book, once you look past the flaws, is still very interesting and worth reading (assuming that you're not a creationist). Many of the side stories which I complained about are actually interesting if you don’t mind frequent diversions and he goes into DNA a little more than the other non DNA specific evolution books I've read. So in the end I do think its pretty good, just not as a first book on evolution. ...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Tamra rated it it was ok

Shelves: own-currently

2.5 stars.

The upside:
- This is a nice compilation of the evolutionary evidence that's out there. Dawkins frequently quotes other books that have been written on the subject (his own books included).
- It's also a nice sum-up of what was written in Darwin's On the Origin of Species, which I'm not likely to read. Dawkins followed Darwin's pattern of "softening up" as Dawkins put it, which means he softballed the subject for 3 or 4 chapters, leading the reader from something they were more likely to 2.5 stars.

The upside:
- This is a nice compilation of the evolutionary evidence that's out there. Dawkins frequently quotes other books that have been written on the subject (his own books included).
- It's also a nice sum-up of what was written in Darwin's On the Origin of Species, which I'm not likely to read. Dawkins followed Darwin's pattern of "softening up" as Dawkins put it, which means he softballed the subject for 3 or 4 chapters, leading the reader from something they were more likely to accept (dog breeding, for instance) towards the real heart and soul of evolution by natural selection.
- The last few chapters are AWESOME. Comparative evolutionary evidence is incredible.

The downside:
- Dawkins is insulting. He tries to not be so in-your-face about his All Religious People are Chumps stance, but he can't stay away from it long before he's throwing out one-liners and pop shots.
- Dawkins is condescending. The one study that he goes into depth about, he warns you about. And I quote: "The next few pages are ... somewhat intricate. ... It would probably be best not to read this section of the book when tired, at the end of a long day." He repeats this "if you're too stupid to understand this section, try again later" warning TWICE (those were my words in quotes that time). Seriously, Dawkins? How come when I read your book I get the feeling that you think I'm stupid? You've never even met me. I'm reading your book, shouldn't you try to be the slightest bit respectful? Whatever.
- He rambles. A lot. His sidetracks took him so far off topic that I often had to read the chapter and then go back and skim it to know what the thread was. I took to underlining the main topics so I could TRY to follow him. By the end of the book I got used to his style, which is, I think, to introduce a lot of hard topics that he won't carry past the current page.
- I've read a lot of the information in another book, and it was better done there. Finding Darwin's God, thank you.
- Dawkin's hero worship of Darwin got a little old.

So, I guess the bottom line is that the information is good, but the writing left something to be desired. It took so long for me to read because I got tired of being insulted. I'm a nice person, Richard Dawkins! You, however, may not be. ...more

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Aug 08, 2010 Mark Gowan rated it liked it

For those who are tired of the creationists babbling on about 'missing links' and evolution being 'just a theory',Dawkins has a good book here. He reminds us that the "even without the fossil record there is no doubt as to the truth of evolution..."

The book's chapters are a thorough overview of the pieces of evidence (including genetic, homological, archaeology among others). But, in his typical fashion, Dawkins gets side-tracked on details that probably could have been left out. That being said ...more

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Oct 22, 2009 Dave Winter rated it it was amazing

For those who know Richard Dawkins from his book "The God Delusion," this book might be a bit of a let-down. As Dawkins himself claims, he already 'wore that shirt,' and doesn't feel the need to address 'history-deniers' in this book as he did in "The God Delusion" (although there are several instances, though brief, where he must). However, this book is probably the most accessible, exciting, and easy to understand book on evolution by natural selection that one could hope for. I found it thoro ...more

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Oct 02, 2009 James rated it it was amazing

This is British biologist Richard Dawkin's attempt to make the evidence for evolution accessible to a lay audience.

I remember taking a Chordate Anatomy course in college, which was very challenging and included an overview of how different part of different species could be best understood by looking at their common ancestor. When immersed in the evidence, the process of evolution seems clear and is very elegant. I had a similar experience when I took a developmental anatomy class in medical sc ...more

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Oct 30, 2009 Naleen rated it liked it

Shelves: 2010

Having trouble getting through this one. Don't get me wrong- I think this is a very good introduction to evolution- especially for those who don't know very much about the topic. Unfortunately, Dawkins has already pissed off the audience that most needs to read this. I wish he had written this before he becamse such an open and loud critic of religion, or at least under a pen name instead.
My favorite parts so far have been about the coevolution of orchids and bees. This discussion is accompanied ...more

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Oct 03, 2009 Simon Cleveland rated it really liked it

Shelves: genetics, evolution, investigation, nature, science, horror, atheism, geology

Dawkins doesn't surprise with this book on fresh look at the evolution. Written as a response to the intelligent design theory, Dawkins takes a detailed approach to defining the elements in support of evolution.
Despite the scientific lingo, this actually is a very entertaining read. High recommendation for all who doubt evolution, intelligent design, religion or science. ...more

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