This is a book I had waited for without knowing it. Dawkins had written so many brilliant works on biology that I was gob-smacked when he produced a treatise on reason and science in general. He did not disappoint. He debunks nonsense and explains exactly where the smoke and mirrors are in pseudo-science and superstitious beliefs. His explanation of how Uri Geller may stop watches over a television broadcast is brilliant. So simple when you know how it is done. If anyone doubts in the beauty of reason, science, and appreciation of the world as it really is, then this book makes a great case in defence of reason. Humans may not be reasonable but they should strive for some level of mastery of it, not so?
This one is right up there with Carl Sagan's, "A Demon Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark" and like that book, is one of which I bought several copies merely to distribute as gifts among friends in need of an anchor in reality or just who would cheer each point in favour of a rational and beautiful universe.
Every citizen of the reality-based community ought to read this, and as for anyone else, they should read it, too.
...ContinuaTerrible. Richard Dawkins doesn't have much to say outside of biology.
Dawkins writes with infectious awe and reverence about the immense satisfaction which can be gained from serious scientific enquiry and offers a warning against the dangers of superstition and of populist misconceptions of science. Thought-provoking and at times poetic.
...Continua
