Richard Dawkins

Genom historien har vi människor försökt förklara naturens fenomen med fantasifulla myter. För vikingarna var regnbågen gudarnas bro till jorden. I Japan bar en enorm fisk världen på sin rygg och varje gång den viftade på stjärten blev det jordbävning. I "Verklighetens magi" visar den världsberömde biologen och författaren Richard Dawkins att vetenskapens svar på de största frågorna är minst lika spännande. Vem var den första människan? Varför finns det så många olika slags märkvärdiga djur? Vad är en regnbåge och är vi ensamma i universum? Tillsammans med illustratören Dave McKean har Richard Dawkins skapat Verklighetens magi. De färgsprakande illustrationerna förklarar världen som den verkligen ser ut, och levandegör verklighetens hela magi.

What are things made of? What is the sun? Why is there night and day, winter and summer? Why do bad things happen? Are we alone? Have you heard the tale of how the sun hatched out of an emu's egg? Has anyone ever told you that earthquakes are caused by a sneezing giant? This title answers all these questions.

In this groundbreaking volume, J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., MD, with Clare Aukofer, offers a succinct yet comprehensive study of how and why the human mind generates religious belief. Dr. Thomson, a highly respected practicing psychiatrist with credentials in forensic psychiatry and evolutionary psychology, methodically investigates the components and causes of religious belief in the same way any scientist would investigate the movement of astronomical bodies or the evolution of life over time--that is, as a purely natural phenomenon. Providing compelling evidence from psychology, the cognitive neurosciences, and related fields, he, with Ms. Aukofer, presents an easily accessible and exceptionally convincing case that god(s) were created by man--not vice versa. With this slim volume, Dr. Thomson establishes himself as a must-read thinker and leading voice on the primacy of reason and science over superstition and religion.

Maineikas biologi, biologiaan keskittynyt tietokirjailija ja ateisti Richard Dawkins käsittelee tässä teoksessa Jumalaan uskomisen irrationaalisuutta ja sen yhteiskunnalle aiheuttamaa vahinkoa. Dawkins tutkii Jumalaa kaikissa muodoissaan alkaen Vanhan testamentin seksiin pakkomielteisesti suhtautuvasta tyrannista ja ulottuen joidenkin valistuksen ajattelijoiden lempeämpään, mutta edelleen irrationaaliseen taivaalliseen kelloseppään. Jumalharha käsittelee merkittävimmät Jumalan olemassaoloa puoltavat väitteet ja osoittaa, miten äärimmäisen epätodennäköinen Jumala on. Teos osoittaa myös, miten uskonto on sotien, kiihkoilun ja lasten kaltoin kohtelun käyttövoima. Jumalharha esittää vakuuttavasti, että usko Jumalaan sekä perustuu virheelliseen ajatteluun että on potentiaalisesti kuolemanvaarallista. Se tarjoaa myös vapauttavan näkemyksen ateismista yksilölle ja yhteiskunnalle koituvista eduista, joista merkittävimpiä on selkeämpi, todempi käsitys maailmankaikkeudesta kuin uskonto on milloinkaan antanut. Richard Dawkins on kansan luonnontiedettä koskevan käsityksen professori Oxfordin yliopistossa.

Richard Dawkins transformed our view of God in his blockbuster, The God Delusion, which sold millions of copies in English alone. He revolutionized the way we see natural selection in the seminal bestseller The Selfish Gene. Now, he launches a fierce counterattack against proponents of "Intelligent Design" in his New York Times bestseller, The Greatest Show on Earth." Intelligent Design" is being taught in our schools; educators are being asked to "teach the controversy" behind evolutionary theory. There is no controversy. Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence--from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics--to make 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." His unjaded passion for the natural world turns what might have been a negative argument, exposing the absurdities of the creationist position, into a positive offering to the reader: nothing less than a master's vision of life, in all its splendor.

Charles Darwin's masterpiece, "On the Origin of Species", shook society to its core on publication in 1859. This title takes on creationists, including followers of 'Intelligent Design' and all those who question the fact of evolution through natural selection.

Er kroppene våre bare overlevelsesmaskiner for genene? Knapt noen bok innen biologi har, siden Darwins Om artenes opprinnelse, vakt slik oppsikt som Dawkins' The Selfish Gene. Dette er boken som maktet å gjøre genteori og evolusjonsbiologi til folkelesning! Her kan du lese om livet på jorda sett fra genenes synsvinkel. Genenes eneste mål er å bringe flest mulig kopier av seg selv videre til nye generasjoner, og til dette trengs et verktøy - organismen. Enhver organisme, mennesket inkludert, kan derfor betraktes som en genstyrt robot, en marionett under DNA-trådene. Men hvor blir det da av menneskets frie vilje? Fritar et slikt verdensbilde oss fra moralsk ansvar? Nei, hevder Dawkins. Mennesket er ikke totaldeterminert, men kan, som eneste art, gjøre opprør mot genenes diktatur. Innledningen er skrevet av professor Dag O. Hessen.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR GODLESS"Valuable in the human story are the reflections of intelligent and ethical people who listen to the voice of reason and who allow it to vanquish bigotry and superstition. This book is a classic example."-CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS author of God is Not Great"The most eloquent witness of internal delusion that I know-a triumphantly smiling refugee from the zany, surreal world of American fundamentalist Protestantism-is Dan Barker."-RICHARD DAWKINS author of The God Delusion"Godless was a revelation to me. I don't think anyone can match the (devastating!) clarity, intensity, and honesty which Dan Barker brings to the journey-faith to reason, childhood to growing up, fantasy to reality, intoxication to sobriety."-OLIVER SACKS authors of MusicophiliaIn Godless, Barker recounts his journey from evangelical preacher to atheist activist, and along the way explains precisely why it is not only okay to be an atheist, it is something in which to be proud."-MICHAEL SHERMER publisher of Skeptic Magazine"Godless is a fascinating memoir and a handbook for debunking theism. But most of all, it is a moving testimonial to one man's emotional and intellectual rigor in acclaiming critical thinking."-ROBERT SAPOLSKY author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

Der Evolutionsbiologe Richard Dawkins, einer der einflussreichsten Intellektuellen der Gegenwart, hat einen Bestseller geschrieben, der bestehende Weltbilder grunds?tzlich in Frage stellt. In diesem leidenschaftlichen Pl?doyer f?r die Vernunft zieht er gegen die Religion zu Felde: Der Glaube an eine ?bernat?rliche Macht kann keine Grundlage f?r das Verst?ndnis der Welt sein und schon gar keine Erkl?rung f?r ihre Entstehung. Wenn wir die Kritik an den Religionen zum Tabu erkl?ren, laufen wir Gefahr, von Fundamentalisten jedweder Couleur dominiert zu werden. Der Glaube an ein g?ttliches Wesen ist vielfach die Ursache von Terror und Zerst?rung, wie die Weltgeschichte von der Inquisition bis zu den Anschl?gen auf die Twin Towers zeigt. Ein wichtiges Buch, das zu einem brennend aktuellen Thema eindeutig und ?berzeugend Position bezieht.

In the last fifteen years a controversial new theory of the origins of biological complexity and the nature of the universe has been fomenting bitter debates in education and science policy across North America, Europe, and Australia. Backed by intellectuals at respectable universities, Intelligent Design Theory (ID) proposes an alternative to accepted accounts of evolutionary theory: that life is so complex, and that the universe is so fine-tuned for the appearance of life, that the only plausible explanation is the existence of an intelligent designer. For many ID theorists, the designer is taken to be the god of Christianity. Niall Shanks has written the first accessible introduction to, and critique of, this controversial new intellectual movement. Shanks locates the growth of ID in the last two decades of the twentieth century in the growing influence of the American religious right. But as he shows, its roots go back beyond Aquinas to Ancient Greece. After looking at the historical roots of ID, Shanks takes a hard look at its intellectual underpinnings, discussing modern understandings of thermodynamics, and how self-organizing processes lead to complex physical, chemical, and biological systems. He considers cosmological arguments for ID rooted in so-called "anthropic coincidences" and also tackles new biochemical arguments for ID based on "irreducible biological complexity." Throughout he shows how arguments for ID lack cohesion, rest on errors and unfounded suppositions, and generally are grossly inferior to evolutionary explanations. While ID has been proposed as a scientific alternative to evolutionary biology, Shanks argues that ID is in fact "old creationist wine in new designer label bottles" and moreover is a serious threat to the scientific and democratic values that are our cultural and intellectual inheritance from the Enlightenment.

"A hard-hitting polemic against religious fundamentalism" - Foreword by Richard Dawkins' Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The truth is that many who claim to be transformed by Christ's love are deeply, even murderously, intolerant of criticism. While we may want to ascribe this to human nature, it is clear that such hatred draws considerable support from the Bible. How do I know this? The most disturbed of my correspondents always cite chapter and verse.'So begins Letter to a Christian Nation, Sam Harris's hard-hitting rebuttal of religious fundamentalism and blind belief . With deceptively simple arguments, he demolishes the myths on which Christianity was built, challenges believers to open their eyes to the contradictions of their faith and warns us of the dangers of America's ever increasing unification of Church and State. Sam Harris is the author of the New York Times bestseller The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason and winner of the 2005 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Non-fiction. He is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University and is now completing a doctorate in neuroscience. He lives in New York.

In an impassioned rebuttal to religion, a noted scientist and author of The Blind Watchmaker speaks out on his the irrationality of belief in God; criticizes the dire impact of religion on society, from the Crusades to September 11; and argues that religion fuels war, bigotry, child abuse, violence, and other ills.

***30th Anniversary Edition***Acclaimed as the most influential work on evolution written in the last hundred years, The Blind Watchmaker offers an inspiring and accessible introduction to one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time. A brilliant and controversial book which demonstrates that evolution by natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process discovered by Darwin - is the only answer to the biggest question of all: why do we exist?

***20th Anniversary Edition - With a New Introduction***Cover note: Each copy of the anniversary edition of Climbing Mount Improbable features a unique shell. No two covers are exactly alike. How could such an intricate object as the human eye - so complex and so precise - have come about by chance? In this masterful piece of popular science, Richard Dawkins builds a powerful and carefully reasoned argument for evolutionary adaptation as the force behind all life on earth. The metaphor of 'Mount Improbable' represents the combination of perfection and improbability that we find in the seemingly 'designed' complexity of living things. And through it all runs the thread of DNA, the molecule of life, responsible for its own destiny on an unending pilgrimage through time. Evocative illustrations accompany Dawkins' eloquent descriptions of astonishing adaptations in the living world.

This 30th anniversary edition includes a new introduction from the author as well as the original prefaces and foreword, and extracts from early reviews. As relevant and influential today as when it was first published, The Selfish Gene has become a classic exposition of evolutionary thought. Professor Dawkins articulates a gene's eye view of evolution - a view giving centre stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for their replication. This imaginative, powerful, and stylistically brilliant work not only brought the insights of Neo-Darwinism to a wide audience, but galvanized the biology community, generating much debate and stimulating whole new areas of research.

The influential scientist and author of Unweaving the Rainbow presents a collection of incisive essays that explores such topics as religion, mysticism, modern educational methods, pseudoscience, Africa, and such late colleagues as Douglas Adams and Stephen Jay Gould. Reprint.

How did the replication bomb we call "life" begin and where in the world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading? Writing with characteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (the New York Times described his style as "the sort of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius"), Richard Dawkins confronts this ancient mystery.

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution is a wide-ranging introduction to the human species that places modern humans in evolutionary perspective. Over seventy scholars world-wide have worked on the encyclopedia, covering a range of subjects from genetics, primatology and fossil origins to human biology and ecology, brain function and behaviour, demography and disease. Emphasis is placed throughout on the biological diversity of modern people and the increasing convergence of the fossil and genetic evidence for human evolution that has emerged. Due to the need to look at humankind in the context of our closest relatives, the encyclopedia also pays particular attention to the evolution and ecology of other living primates - lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys and apes. It deals with the evolution and ecology of human society, as reconstructed from archaeological remains, and from studies of tribal peoples and living primates today. It considers the biology of uniquely human abilities such as language and upright walking, and it reviews the biological future of humankind in the face of modern challenges.