The Greatest Show on Earth The Evidence for Evolution 理查德·道金斯进化论名著 ISBN=9781416594789
作者： Richard Dawkins 著
出版社：Simon & Schuster 2009年9月
简介： In 1859 Charles Darwin's masterpiece, On the Origin ofSpecies, shook society to its core. Darwin was only too aware ofthe storm his theory of evolution would provoke. But he surelywould have raised an incredulous eyebrow at the controversy stillraging a century and a half later. Evolution is accepted asscientific fact by all reputable scientists and indeed theologians,yet millions of people continue to question its veracity. Now theauthor of the iconic work The God Delusion takes them totask. The Greatest Show on Earth is a stunning counterattack onadvocates of "Intelligent Design," explaining the evidence forevolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist"argument." Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientificevidence: from living examples of natural selection to clues in thefossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochswherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developingembryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics. Combiningthese elements and many more, he makes the airtight case that "wefind ourselves perched on one tiny twig in the midst of ablossoming and flourishing tree of life and it is no accident, butthe direct consequence of evolution by non-random selection." The Greatest Show on Earth comes at a critical time: systematicopposition to the fact of evolution is menacing as never before. InAmerican schools, and in schools around the world, insidiousattempts are made to undermine the status of science in theclassroom. Dawkins wields a devastating argument against thisignorance, but his unjaded passion for the natural world turns whatmight have been a negative argument into a positive offering to thereader: nothing less than a master's vision of life, in all itssplendor.
