The greatest show on earth : the evidence for evolution

There's grandeur in this Dawkins' work, too

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, by retired science professor Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, is at once of `thriller' and 'sure-footed non-fiction' genres. Mind-bending to wondrously eye-opening, this work clarifies the mountainous evidence for Evolution. How nice the synchronicity: publishing it on the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th of The Origin of Species. Marketing has its place. I had mulled Darwin's statement: "There is grandeur in this view of life." After reading TGSOE, it rang truer yet. And toward the last of its 437 pages, I was almost giddy (sounds isotopily unstable, I know) [Footnote: The Bible and Qur'an are not science books] Scientific findings should not be ignored, dismissed out of hand, or its data unanalyzed, because it belies dogma; often enough, human animals are seduced into delusional world views due to fear; perusing a few pages here n there just might start a process of freeing one up, however, from its limiting effects. When is it that one gets dissuaded from questioning? Or derided for critical thinking? Or if fortunate, encouraged to curiosity? Well, if YOU were dissuaded at some point, Dawkins' book may be your ticket to a life-renewing antidote. (Consider visiting a museum of natural history, too.) Now I doubt that the mere reading of this work will result in all the intellectual mutations Dawkins hoped for; certainly not among the devout, who faithfully remain cocooned in the beguiling comforts of platitudes. But in time... Revelation: 1) modern species do not evolve into other modern species; they share common ancestors. 2) Animal and plant breeding--techniques applied for centuries--give us insight into branches of living diversity that spread over millions upon millions of years, via random, mutating genes within DNA. (Broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts have all derived--via non-random/artificial selection by bright humans--from a common ancestor: wild cabbage) Pedigree dog-breeding led t...