The Greatest Show on Earth

November 21, 2009

This week marks the 150-year anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Speaking of books on evolution, I just finished Richard Dawkins’ most recent book, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.

Here are a few choice quotes:

…a good theory, a scientific theory, is one that is vulnerable to disproof, yet is not disproved. Evolution could so easily be disproved if just a single fossil turned up in the wrong date order. (pg. 147)

Throughout this chapter, we shall continually find examples of evolution correcting an initial ‘mistake’ or historical relic by post hoc compensation or tweaking, rather than by going back to the drawing board as a real designer would. (pg. 341)

Imperfections are inevitable when ‘back to the drawing board’ is not an option – when improvements can be achieved only by making ad hoc modifications to what is already there. (pg. 365)

…but the imperfections make perfect sense in the light of evolution. (pg. 375)

We are surrounded by endless forms, most beautiful and most wonderful, and it is not accident, but the direct consequence of evolution by non-random natural selection – the only game in town, the greatest show on Earth. (pg. 426)