The Blind Watchmaker: Why the
Evidence of Evolution Reveals a
Universe without Design by Richard
Dawkins
Great If You're Interested In Atheism Or Biology
Richard Dawkins is not a shy man. Edward Larsons research shows that
most scientists today are not formally religious, but Dawkins is an in-your-
face atheist in the witty British style: I want 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.
The title of this 1986 work, Dawkinss second book, refers to the Rev.
William Paleys 1802 work, Natural Theology, which argued that just as
finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must exist,
the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists. Not so,
says Dawkins: All appearances to the contrary, the only watchmaker in
nature is the blind forces of physics, albeit deployed in a very special

way... it is the blind watchmaker. Dawkins is a hard-core scientist: he
doesnt just tell you what is so, he shows you how to find out for yourself.
For this book, he wrote Biomorph, one of the first artificial life programs.
You can check Dawkinss results on your own Mac or PC.
Personal Review: The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of
Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design by Richard
Dawkins
In this rightly called classic book, Richard Dawkins unveils nothing less
than the
Secret of life, the principle that encompasses all forms of living things,
human, animal, plant, bacterial and even, if any, extraterrestrial. It is a
principle that explains why we exist and why we are as we are. That
principle is Darwinism.
Darwinism is a cumulative process based on step-by-step transformations
(mutations) which arrive by chance. But, the cumulative selections
(survivals) of the mutations are not random and are responsible for the
existence of life's complex design.
The process (the `watchmaker') is blind. It has no long-term goal, no
purpose. The selections are always short-term. But, it is the evolutionary
change over the immensities of time which produced what we see around
us.
The basic factor in cumulative selection is the property of self-replication.
Mutations are `errors' in replication, which can become dominant because
they produce fitter specimens (mutants).
All cells of living bodies contain genes (genetic material). But the selection
is made on bodies, not genes.
The stuff of genes is DNA (a chain composed by 4 organic molecules).
DNA itself is not durable, but its patterns are. Chromosomes, long strands
of genes, are passed down generation after generation.
Richard Dawkins also tackles passionately other important aspects of
Darwinism.
In the ongoing dispute between `gradualness' and `punctuationism'
(sudden evolutionary bursts, like the swelling of the human skull), he
cleverly cites J.B.S. Haldane: `something like the transition from amoeba
to man goes on in every mother's womb in a mere nine months'.
Natural selection is not only destructive (survival of the fittest). It can also
be constructive through gene cooperation, for instance in the `tracking' of a
changing environment.
Other items are macromutation, the problem of speciation, sexual and
asexual reproduction, sexual attraction and selection (`living and the
struggle for survival are only means for one end: reproduction'),
embryology, and the reasons why Darwinism is still not universally
accepted and even attacked (for religious, ideological or political
purposes).

There is, however, one crucial point that the author couldn't solve (for the
moment) and for which he can only give some hints: how did the process
eventually start on earth?
A convincing try was made by the Dutch scientist S.T. Bok in his book `De
oorsprong van het leven' (The origin of life'. Unfortunately, his book has
never been translated.
This book is a must read for all those interested in life on earth, because
`Darwinism is the bedrock of all human disciplines, for all human works are
products of the brain.'
And, as another great Darwinist, G.C. Williams, has said more
provocatively: `natural selection, albeit stupid, is a story of unending arms
races, slaughter and suffering. It is a law of nature and its immorality has to
be accepted and, at least, to be thought about. `
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