The Magic of Reality

by Richard Dawkins

Believe it or not, your 185-million-greats-grandfather was – a fish.

It is a beautiful fact that many of the different radioactive clocks have overlapping timescales, so we can use them to check up on each other. And they always agree.

What is a fact beyond all doubt is that we share an ancestor with every other species of animal and plant on the planet.

Think about why trees have so many twigs. Branches branch. When we have enough branches of branches of branches, the total number of twigs can be very large. That’s what happens in evolution.

It is tantalizing to read the actual notes of a great scientist, written on a particular day and never meant for publication.

You remember we said that a lake or an oasis could count as an island, even though neither consists of land surrounded by water?

That’s part of a system of beliefs called astrology, which, ridiculous as it may seem, still has quite a few followers to this day.