Great accessible book on range of science subjects

This book contains a range of writing and discussions that Richard Dawkins has written or interviewed. It's brilliant, with many interesting and illuminating pieces around a range of subjects. These are some of my favourite takeaways:
- PALE BLUE DOT: It includes some wonderful writing, including Carl Sagan’s comment on a photograph of a small blue dot caught on a picture taken from Saturn’s rings: ““Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot…. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.” The whole passage is in the book and it's one of the greatest pieces of writing ever. The introduction has some wonderful writing.
- GLASS OF WATER: If you were to put a glass of water and pour it into the sea, leave time for it to stir and dissolve in the sea for sometime, by the time you picked up another scoop of water, it would at least contain one molecule from the glass of water that you poured in the in the sea. That is because there are more molecules in a glass of water than there are glasses of water in the sea, which is an incredible fact.
- PAIN AND PHOBIAS: In discussion with Steven Pinker, there is a fascinating comment about phobias and how people think about things that will probably do no harm to them such as spiders in this country or walking under ladders and yet people don't have phobias about driving fast and not wearing a seatbelt and these are the things that can kill you it's an interesting comment.
- Steven Pinker also talks about a range of mental health problems so for example it's important that we have anxiety in small measures because this is what helps us to finish work or complete a project but when anxiety takes a more significant form, it can be very debilitating. The same can also be said about sadness which makes sure and allows us to look after our children and care for them but when we have significant sadness it can lead to depression, which can become debilitating, so we need emotions but in excessive amounts they can be very debilitating and lead to mental health problems. If you don’t have emotions, you can’t make decisions.
- “Emotions may be maladaptive in the sense that they might have been good for our ancestors, their evolution over time or even what's good for us today. An analogy would be pain and we would probably like as little pain as possible but people who are congenitally unable to feel pain die very young because they chew through their lips, they scold themselves with boiling hot coffee that they don't mind drinking, they fail to change positions while sitting and so they suffer from chronic inflammation of their joints, whereas when you feel pain you're prompted to constantly shift to allow the blood to circulate. At first glance we might imagine how wonderful it would be never having to feel pain, but in fact it would be a curse”. People who do not feel pain lead short lives and die very young. This is one of the most powerful arguments about why we should feel pain.
- EVOLUTION: We and chimpanzees are closer to each other than chimpanzees are to other great apes, and this is important to think about because we are still part chimpanzee as much as we are living human beings also from our past. However, we are also, as all living things are also, part of Stardust, and it's the elements from exploding stars that make up our bones, our blood and our brains. Everything originated from the explosion of supernova stars, creating all the elements except for the first two elements; hydrogen and helium, which were created in the Big Bang at the beginning of time.
- HITCH: There is a fascinating conversation with Christopher Hitchens in his final ever interview, and it's a real delight to hear the man speak if you have the audio version and to hear some fascinating views that he has on religion. I particularly often hear it cited that a lot figures from the second world war, such as Stalin and Hitler, were caused by atheists, but actually we don't know if either was an atheist and we might actually think that Hitler was and certainly many of his people in his command were religious, they also had a large influence on Catholicism being a part of this cause of what the Germans did, as well as the fact that they probably wanted to create their own religion. Christopher Hitchens makes an interesting point about Christmas, and that shepherds and the three wise men are all made up
- IS THE GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT A VILLIAN: Dawkins talks about God could be described as follows: ““The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
- What is remarkable about this quote which caused a lot of controversy when it was written is that a person that Hawkins knew called Dan Barker, who knew the Bible inside out, looked to see if you could look for counter arguments that the God of the Old Testament is kind, generous, encouraging, forgiving, charitable, loving, friendly, good humoured, supportive of woman, of homosexuals, of children, freedom loving, open minded, broadminded, non violent that you can't find any of those nice verses that describe the God of the Old Testament. I found that very interesting.
- I also love an interesting character called Seth Andrews, who said that people would comment to him that if he didn’t believe, he would be going to hell. He replies “the fact that if you believe that you're going to go to hell, what kind of God is that that is so angry at you because you just don't believe that, that he's gonna spit roast you and send you to hell”.
- WONDER: If we can accept that we have one simple, ordinary, beautiful life, and appreciate all the wonder that is going on around us then we don't need God or religion. We just need to make the most of one time on this earth, but many can’t accept this, and people are literally becoming imprisoned by illusionary, delusional gods. As Stephen Hawking said, “religion is fairytales for people who are afraid of death.”
- BIBLE ON RAISING CHILDREN: Laurence Reese talks about in a conversation with Dawkins about that if you're going to "the old is the scripture of the Bible stating that homosexuality is wrong and you also have to accept everything in the in the Bible which includes things like “being able to kill your children, if they're disobedient” or the right to ‘sleep with your father if you need to be impregnated and there are no other men around’, - there’s a lot about how you should punish children and nothing mentioned on caring, loving or raising a child without punishment.
- What is also remarkable are the pieces of knowledge that we can currently observe (like the universe shortly after the birth of the universe, early stars and what we know of how the universe works and was formed). The theory behind the big bang and all the evidence that is all around us, but in many many years time they will be scientist who will not be able to observe this and our universe will have expanded to such an extent that one day, scientists won’t be able to see our galaxy in our world and there will be no evidence of other galaxies, so they will never have the access to the knowledge that we have today. It's interesting to think about in these words by Lawrence Krauss, what it might mean for science, the future and how we pass on knowledge.
- WHY WE BELIEVE IN RELIGION: The book looks and tries to answer the question of why do we believe in religion, and one argument is, it's quite similar to our craving for highly processed food with sugar that in the past, there was such scarcity in the past but now we have so much around us that it is causing us to harm both ourselves and others. Understanding the psychology of addictions to things like highly processed foods and sugar, helps you to understand the psychology of why people believe, it's a basic need, and it drives people to seek patterns such as clowns in clouds and other such things can help simplify the reason for why we exist, and allows us to have fairy tales for people afraid of death.
- ISIS: There is a part of the book that looks at a young woman called Farida Khalaf, who escaped from the clutches of Isis. When Isis came to her village and everybody was a non-believer and who did not follow the Koran, all the men were executed, and all the women sold into slavery. As the author was a young girl who was an infidel in the book, she could be used by men in any way that they wanted, including rape, which is what happened to her. And these people claim to be scholars, even though they only follow one book.
- WHY EVOLUTION IS TRUE: Jerry Coyne’s book on ‘why evolution is true’. I look fit a wide range of factors that show that we are all connected in the most remarkable days. Since the 1950s we've had molecular biology to look at the understanding of DNA and this recipe blueprint that is turned on by four different chemical messages. Each gene’s code uses the four nucleotide bases of DNA: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T) that in various ways to spell out three-letter “codons” that specify which amino acid is needed at each position within a protein - which can make eyes, hair, blood, bone, and everything else that makes who we are, what we are. Dogs have better smell than humans, but the genes that allow dogs may have strong DNA that allows them to smell where as in humans these same cells have the same DNA cells but they just deactivated.
- IS EVOLUTION TRUE: How can you say that evolution is true? Isn't that just your opinion, isn't it just a theory. Jerry Coyne's book ‘why evolution is true’ discusses sciences has allowed us to travel on a Boeing 747 rather than a magic carpet or a broomstick, if you have a tumour you want the best surgeon available rather than the shaman or a priest. Our understanding of evolution, even if we call it a theory, the evidence is so overwhelming from the fossil records, DNA, and how animals have evolved that it is pretty much a fact in the same way that it's a theory that the sun will rise tomorrow. And yet in America 40% of people believe that life on earth and humans has existed in its present form since the beginning of time. And in Britain only 69% want evolution to be taught at all - which means that 29% don’t. Evolution is a true story of why we all exist and is an exhilarating, powerful and satisfactory explanation. It supersedes any other narrative that we have about how we all came to be on this planet. We have been able to trace the tree of life and see how we are all connected, not just man with animals but also with fungi and plants. However, it's also worth noting that some people believe the earth is flat.
- TO BE READ AT DAWKINS FUNERAL: The book ends with an epilogue to be read at Richard Dawkins funeral “we live on a planet that is all but perfect for our kind of life: not too warm and not too cold, basking in kindly sunshine, softly watered; a gently spinning, green and gold harvest festival of a planet. After a million years of sleep, here is a whole new fertile globe, a lush planet of warm pastures, sparkling with streams and waterfalls, a world bountiful with creatures, darting through alien green Felicity.... I am lucky to be alive and so are you. Privileged, and not just privileged to enjoy our planet. Moreover, we are granted the opportunity to understand why our eyes are open, and why they see what they do, in the short time before they close forever.”
The book is a potpourri of wonderful writing and illuminating ideas. I hope to read it again.

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R

Interesting listen, Dawkins takes you through a range of topics and adds amazing insight into each of them as per usual.

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Dawkins at his best

I am a fan of Dawkins and this is an excellent collection of previous published reviews and book introductions.

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Brilliant

Another great book from one of the greatest minds and orator of our times and you also get a bunch of book suggestions thrown into the bargain!

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Awesome as expected

Richard's enduring wit and mastery of explanaing concepts comes through this collection of essays, forewords and interviews. Edutainment at its very best. I can't wait for "Flights of Fancy"

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Brilliant!

This was a well written and well read book.
The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars across the board was due to Richard Dawkins sweeping generalisation/implication that anyone who voted to leave the EU must be either a racist or a xenophobic moron.
Other than that fatuous small piece, it was an excellent book.

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Excellent collection of pieces

To be honest I thought I had heard everything that Prof Dawkins had to say over the years. Glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised to listen to a lot of ideas I have not heard him talking about before. Well worth adding to the collection of Dawkins books.

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The best science communicator

One of the greatest minds of our time presents us with an invaluable selection of great books. Eloquent and entertaining Richard explains highly complex topics with great simplicity.

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Soporific delivery

The flip flop of narrators adds nothing.
It reminds me of the worst kind of school teachers; saying the words on the page and giving nothing away of them having a pulse.
Read like a cross between an old Open University lecture and a 1960s children's radio story. I wanted to like it, I really did. Ho hum.

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I've heard this one before

I have to say that I have long been something of a Dawkins fan, and have read several of his books. I am also very well disposed towards the scientists with whom he discusses various issues, having read one or two of their books and viewed lectures etc on line.
However, there are several problems. The first, and most obvious, is that I have heard all of the material covered before. Many times. This book follows a groove that Dawkins has worn very deeply - to the point of being a rut.
The second is that Dawkins himself comes over, now and then, as less than the open minded liberal scientist familiar from his books. He begins with a quote, repeated twice more, by his mentor to the effect that many graduates have been educated beyond their capacity for critical thought. This is a direct insult to you and I, and I can only assume relates to his dealings with such Oxford undergraduates as Boris Johnson. The good Prof should not insult his readers thus.
The interview with Neil de Grasse Tyson does Dawkins no favours. Tyson is, one feels, not only a witty, intelligent and highly accomplished scientist, and an efficient administrator but also a genuinely warm and supportive human being, of whom we should all have at least one in our lives.
Against this, my mental impression of Dawkins morphed during the interview to Mr Burns of the Simpsons. He was just not on the same page in terms of a friendly conversation versus a didactic piece.
The third issue is that the constant repetition made me all but fall asleep, and certainly miss what might have been good things. I had been looking forward the the Steven Pinker interview. I have a first edition of his 1994 book "The Language Instinct". The blurb on the back includes one line from Noam Chomsky at the bottom of the page, and 8 lines from Dawkins at the top - so there should be a good rapport. In the book Pinker quotes Dawkins "Blind Watchmaker" and discusses Paley's watch metaphor. Lo and behold, Paley is back again here and elsewhere in the present book.
There are good things here. For example the reminder that Darwin's magnum opus is purely about speciation (the clue is in the title) and not about creation - perhaps there is room for some sort of accommodation with religious fundamentalists on that point. No? Thought not.
Curiously, my one takeaway from this book is an aside when discussing DNA, that life is a four letter word (yes, those 4 letters - ACG&T) which I assume is a (the?) genetics joke.
In conclusion, if you have never heard of Dawkins or Darwin, this might be a reasonable place to start. Otherwise, can I recommend, for those of a religious inclination, The God Delusion (much better than Hitchens' more "tabloid" God is not Great) or, if you want to know about genetics, you still can't go far wrong with The Selfish Gene. In fact, I am going to go back to my copy right now.

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11 people found this helpful