The blind watchmaker
Subtitle: why evidence of evolution reveals a universe without design
By: Richard Dawkins ; with a new introduction.
Publisher: Norton
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 358
Subjects: Evolution (Biology); Natural selection.
Description: The watchmaker belongs to the eighteenth-century theologian William Paley, who made one of the most famous creationist arguments: Just as a watch is too complicated and too functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. It was Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery that put the lie to these arguments. But only Richard Dawkins could have written this eloquent riposte to the creationists.

Natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind, yet essentially nonrandom process that Darwin discovered - has no purpose in mind. If it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.

. Acclaimed as perhaps the most influential work on evolution written in this century, The Blind Watchmaker offers an engaging and accessible introduction to one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-326) and index.