The Blind Watchmaker-Richard Dawkins

***^1/2/*****                                                                                                               Science

The Blind Watchmaker

Richard Dawkins

Life in its various forms represents the most sophisticated and the most elegant creation in universe. Intricacy of anatomy and physiology of each and every part of the body of an organism is mind boggling. Most organic creatures have evolved incredibly intricate and complicated bodies adapting them to their environment.  When faced with such marvellous design, it is tempting to believe in an all-powerful designer who created these awesome beings.

William Paley, an eighteenth-century Christian apologist and a natural theologist, famously conjured a watchmaker's analogy to posit existence of a creator. He argued that if one stumbles across a watch while walking on a moor and examines its intricate mechanism, he will naturally wonder who designed this complicated object and would not ascribe it to chance. Thus, human body that is much more complex has had to be designed by a creator. This is the basic tenet which Richard Dawkins wants to refute in this book. He asserts that he too is spellbound by the design of living organisms. He devotes one full chapter describing the complicated mechanism of echo location which bats have evolved to illustrate the intricacy of living organisms. But he states this was not designed by a creator but by the blind forces of nature i.e. the blind process of natural selection. Natural selection cannot foresee future as life gradually -painfully gradually like growing of nails- evolves on this planet. Hence the title of the book, The Blind Watchmaker.

Man has descended from apes; this is the only statement most of us know about Darwin’s theory of natural selection. This is not only a deceptive simplification but also untrue if accepted at its face value. Richard Dawkins presents the theory here in all its glory and grandeur. He devises simple metaphors to illustrate the profound and intricate points about evolution. This is ironically one of the drawbacks of the book; in an attempt to make the concepts easy for layperson Dawkins had to sacrifice brevity at many places and the resulting lengthy discussions on a single point are occasionally tedious.

Dawkins has done a great service to all who have often wondered about the origin of life and whose faith in atheism has often wavered when confronted with the awesome design of the universe and its inhabitants. Book is written in a simple language but the concepts presented require sincere reading and application of average intellect. Once the understanding dawns, the ensuing pleasure of discovery is most delightful. Dawkins, while being a staunch believer in Darwinism is also an astute and skilful writer. He defends Darwinism tooth and nail with arguments that are persuasive and stated in a lucid prose. Anyone with even a modicum of interest in origin of life, should not miss this book. It informs us of such eye-opening facts about life and existence that one feels, it would have been a shame if one had died without knowing them.

Nov 2011