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The Greatest Show on Earth  By  cover art

The Greatest Show on Earth

By: Richard Dawkins
Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
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Publisher's summary

In 2008, a Gallup poll showed that 44 percent of Americans believed God had created man in his present form within the last 10,000 years. In a Pew Forum poll in the same year, 42 percent believed that all life on earth has existed in its present form since the beginning of time.

In 1859 Charles Darwin's masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, shook society to its core. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution would provoke. But he surely would have raised an incredulous eyebrow at the controversy still raging a century and a half later.

Evolution is accepted as scientific fact by all reputable scientists and indeed theologians, yet millions of people continue to question its veracity. Now the author of the iconic work The God Delusion takes them to task.

The Greatest Show on Earth is a stunning counterattack on advocates of "Intelligent Design", explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist "argument". Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics. Combining these elements and many more, he makes the airtight case that "we find ourselves perched on one tiny twig in the midst of a blossoming and flourishing tree of life and it is no accident, but the direct consequence of evolution by non-random selection."

The Greatest Show on Earth comes at a critical time: systematic opposition to the fact of evolution is menacing as never before. In American schools, and in schools around the world, insidious attempts are made to undermine the status of science in the classroom. Dawkins wields a devastating argument against this ignorance, but his unjaded passion for the natural world turns what might have been a negative argument into a positive offering to the reader: nothing less than a master's vision of life, in all its splendor.

©2009 Richard Dawkins (P)2009 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"If Charles Darwin walked into a 21st-century bookstore and wanted to know how his theory had fared, this is the book he should pick up. Dawkins remains a superb translator of complex scientific concepts....he has a way of making the drollest details feel like a revelation." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Greatest Show on Earth

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Content - Brilliant! Presentation - Hated it!

I was, as a biologist, generally pleased with the book However, since I have been through a Ph.D. program in Evolutionary Biology from a major university, I was familiar with the material so there was not much new that Dawkins presented. The organization was logical and the writing crisp.

But I have to object to Dawkins and Lalla Ward reading the book. Dawkins, maybe, but Ward, NO! The team reading approach is disconcerting is this kind of presentation as the switch from one to another displaces attention from the material to the speaker. Lalla's voice isn't the best, either. I found the same arrangement to be a problem with "The God Delusion." Lalla Ward was nice as an actress in "Dr. Who" but not as a reader of science or polemics.

My bottom line is get the book to read with your eyes OR, with luck, another narrator will do a new version. George Guidall, maybe? It's a real tragedy that we don't have Frank Muller anymore.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book

An excellent book describing the facts of evolution. The narration was excellent. I will listen to this one more time to let it sync better. All religious fanatics should read this book and learn about facts of life and reality of nature.

Being an astrophysics and theoretical physics fan, this book answered my questions of where we come from and for what purpose we are here, it's an answer that an individual has to find it for him/herself. I found mine.

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6 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

A disservice to the field of evolutionary sciences

What disappointed you about The Greatest Show on Earth?

Fascinating scientific discoveries and facts; filled to the brim with horrifyingly fallacious arguments. His hatred of people with differing points of view than him (especially creationists) was not only distracting, but led him to apply the worst logic I've ever heard anyone try to apply in a serious way: ad hominem, straw man, anecdotal, masked man, circular reasoning, equivocation, and pretty much every other fallacy you can think of. The field of evolutionary biology is diverse and filled with a vast number of differing points of view and Dawkins presented the evidence as if there was a single theory of evolution: his. Everyone who disagrees is not only wrong and stupid, but demented and wicked to the core (he really says this--countless times). He did a disservice to the field and to the thousands of evolutionary biologists doing real work collecting and analyzing data, compiling research, testing new and old theories. As a curious and eager to learn listener, I was not just disappointed, but angered by such a poor showing of logic, lack of objective scientific presentation, and just generally narrow view of the field. I expected better of him since he's so well known as an intellectual, but I cannot take him seriously after this book. So much for the spirit of science...

Any additional comments?

If you want an honest scientific presentation of contemporary evolutionary theories, this book is not for you.

If you want to rage against creationists and pretend Dawkins has finally come up with the one and only true and indisputable theory of evolution, have fun...

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Spirtual book

The more I learn about the development of life and humans on earth the more spiritual I become because the more special it makes me feel. For all the events to have happened to have put us here after a 100 million centuries and to have awoken up in this special time and place it makes me feel blessed. Dawkins explains these probable events and processes better than anyone. Understanding the path that life had to take to bring us here makes me feel special. Usually, I don't like it when an author reads his own works but I like it when Dawkins does. I listen to all of Dawkins' books and he doesn't repeat his analogies in his explanations and manages to come up with new and better analogies and explanations. (I would recommend listening to "The Selfish Gene" before this one only because both books are so good that you'll end up listening to both and you might as well read them in that more logical order).

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

more than many readers can chew

Great science, explicit and careful descriptions. Wonderfully read by Dawkins and his wife Lalla. Although I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject, those expecting it to be easily digested my get bogged down. Nevertheless, give it a try, perhaps listen to it more than once. If possible, augment it with a printed copy. I was captivated. I'm familiar nearly all of the subject matter but some parts were covered in a depth I never encountered.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent read

Very accessible, I recommend this for anyone wanting to help move someone along to the path of science and all it has to offer.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Could be the book the tips the balance?

I enjoyed this book a lot. I have a degree in zoology and already know that evolution is true. This book is really intended to give the "already converted" with an arsenal of studies, arguments, and evidence when we find ourselves in a debate with someone who believes in creation or "intelligent design."

There's some really great stuff here; some things I was already familiar with and and some things that were new. I think it would be pretty challenging material for someone who didn't get much past high school biology but rewarding. Not having the visual aids with the audiobook was a bummer and would make it more challenging for a non-scientist. I'm hoping that this book's popularity indicates that the public is embracing evolution at last.

There were so many wonderful bits I could detail but I will let you discover for yourself. I do encourage this book to anyone who's even considering this book and obviously you are if you're reading this. I found the "tag-team" reading with his wife a bit distracting at times. Dawkins reads most of it (probably 65%) and did an excellent job. His wife's reading worked sometimes and not at others. Not ruinous, in my opinion.

Enjoy!

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A great showcase of reason and inquiry

Dawkins scores another hit with me. This book is thorough in its logic, and it doesn't try to 'dumb down' crucial concepts. This is one thing I love about Dawkins. Just as he doesn't adhere to the compulsory veneration of strange belief systems, he also does not try to massage the facts into small minds. If you get it, you get it. If you don't...get an encyclopedia.
Finally, I think the back-and-forth narration was a great choice. I felt like Dawkins and Ward were sitting around the coffee table having a true conversation.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Vintage Dawkins

The only thing better than reading a Richard Dawkins book is to listen to him (and his wife) reading it! This may be the most interesting and entertaining book he has done on evolution, and serves the same purpose of Jerry Coyne's excellent book, while covering very different arguments. Indeed, after reading these books, the only way a person could continue to hold that evolution is not a fact is to propose some variation of the Cartesian Evil Deceiver hypothesis. Now includes PDF with excellent illustrations! Much greener than the book!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing!

I loved every moment of this audio book.
You will not be disappointed.

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