“The Blind Watchmaker”
By
Richard Dawkins
How did we get here? Who made us? These are questions that have puzzled the human mind for centuries. After reading passages from Richard Dawkins' book,The Blind Watchmaker, one may have a better idea on how to answer those questions. Full of analogies and rather perplexing ideas, it is a read sure to provide an explanation of the complexity of evolution and natural selection.
To set the scene, Dawkins immediately introduces the idea of complexity. He states that there are several complex living and nonliving objects in this universe, humans being only one of them. Many complex objects are even created by humans. To us, these objects are no mystery. We built them and know how they work - inside and out. But what about the objects that were not made by humans? What about humans themselves?
According to Dawkins, eighteenth-century theologist William Paley was on the right track to discovering answers with his acknowledgment that all organisms are too complicated to have come to be by pure chance. However, Paley's theory takes a wrong turn when he introduces the customarily religious aspect of his explanation. Doing so, he uses an analogy of a telescope to a human eye. He said; "There is precisely the same proof that the eye was made for vision, as there is that the telescope was made for assisting it." (Abel 65). Proving that someone must have made us, as we made the telescope.
However, Dawkins believes there is a completely opposite explanation. He believes in the solid evidence that science provides. Thus, he turns to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. This states that "if an organism develops traits that enable it to adapt to its environment, it will survive and transmit these traits to its offspring, and that if the organism fails to develop adaptive traits, it will perish" (Abel 641). A perfect explanation to Dawkins, we are all evolved descendants of our humble ancestors; each generation...