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Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
Binding: Paperback
Author: Richard Dawkins
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Features:
Average Rating: 3.5
Total Customer Reviews: 100
List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $10.17
Sales Rank: 24561
Product Description
Did Newton "unweave the rainbow" by reducing it to its prismatic colors, as Keats contended? Did he, in other words, diminish beauty? Far from it, says acclaimed scientist Richard Dawkins; Newton's unweaving is the key to much of modern astronomy and to the breathtaking poetry of modern cosmology. Mysteries don't lose their poetry because they are solved: the solution often is more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering deeper mysteries.
With the wit, insight, and spellbinding prose that have made him a best-selling author, Dawkins takes up the most important and compelling topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics to language and virtual reality, combining them in a landmark statement of the human appetite for wonder.
This is the book Richard Dawkins was meant to write: a brilliant assessment of what science is (and isn't), a tribute to science not because it is useful but because it is uplifting.
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Users Product Reviews: |
Product Review Summary: very fast delivery! I was very impressed by the speedy shipping/delivery of my book. However, I do have to say that I wish there was more information in the product description about the condition of the book. The description did say that there were notes and writing in the margins; I just wish I could have known that the writing was not scholarly, but the previous owner had done ridiculous things like mark out any occurrence where the author writes 'theory of evolution' and inserted 'model of evolution'...among other things. I can easily handle scholarly notes, highlighting, etc., but it is incredibly distracting to have fundamentalist opinions written throughout a book about science. Other than that, I am pleased and am enjoying the book. Thank you!
Product Review Summary: Gift! This was a gift for a friend but Richard Dawkins books are always great to buy, of our great thinkers of our times.
Product Review Summary: Another phenomenal book by Dawkins!! This is the fourth book I have read by Dawkins, the other three were The God Delusion, Climbing Mount Improbable, and The Greatest Show on Earth. Dawkins never seems to disappoint me. I love his writing style and his analogies are so easy to follow. Unweaving the Rainbow basically explains why science should be poetic and not some cold explanation of the world. I don't understand why people think this book is so hostile. He simply explains why things like paranormal science, the X-Files, psychics, and weird theories of evolution by fellow biologists like Gould damage science by giving an uneducated or improper view of scientific theories. Dawkins explains why he believes Gould is wrong (I tend to think Dawkins is correct) by discussing what is wrong with Goulds work. Dawkins simply states that species giving birth to other species is impossible and that it had to occur gradually. Makes sense to me. However, I digress. Overall, I found this book very informative and incredibly entertaining. Classic Dawkins. Highly recommended!
Product Review Summary: Science or Magic? Richard Dawkins has the rare gift of turning science talk into poetry. While boasting a wide range of scientific knowledge, he inspires the reader into wonderment at how discoverable the universe just is. Anyone who is curious about all the mysteries of the universe -anyone with a mind capable of wondering- don't be satisfied with magical, less than logical explanations, he warns. Keep wondering. You might be surprised at how discoverable most things are with a little bit of scientific scrutiny.
Product Review Summary: The Poetry of Atheism This book anticipates the storm that followed Richard Dawkins' best seller, "The God Delusion", which told us bluntly that there is no cosmic security, that there is some kind of a future in our DNA, that we are doomed to oblivion, so why not have good time while we're at it."
Apparently his idea of a good time is hope in Darwinism(his version, of course), a dose of random selection, a round or two of bottled atheism, and "let's all sing in the dark, because we are all doomed anyway.
He actually thinks that his Gospel of the Absence of God is something that will cheer people up. Who is he talking to, anyway? What kind of logic is behind the simple statement that "God does not exist because I say so"?
We have to begin by dissolving the imaginary iceberg that he has placed between human reason and the existence of God. He has not shown in any believeable, cogent and reasoned way that his version of Darwinian evolution disproves the existence of God. He has simply created a massive smokescreen asking people to believe on his word alone.
That is the crux of the question: can you demonstrate God's non-existence from evolutionary biology? In this book, written some years before "The God Delusion", but obviously anticipating it, he pulls out all stops, and there is one solid truth behind this wealth of words: atheists can be as moral, as upright, as in love with beauty and as concerned about their neighbors as anyone else. That is not the issue. The issue is: Does Darwinian evolution disprove the existence of God and the foundation of religion? The answer is No. This book anticipates "The God Delusion" by attempting to turn his roaring lion into a pussycat.
"The Selfish Gene" was a masterpiece of evolutionary biology - except for the End Notes, and this book is something of an extended End Note on his brand of evolutionary biology. There are golden threads throughout the book, as there are in the End Notes. But most are actually moral and ethical principles hanging on the thread of their own weight, with no intellectual or reasoned foundation, their only authority: Richard Dawkins himself.
The best refutation I have found of the thesis of this book is Joyce Kilmer's "Rouge Bouquet". It is poetry and so is "Unweaving the Rainbow". But Richard Dawkins poetry does not blot out the stinging and sterile prose of "The GOd Delusion". If Richard Dawkins cannot make sense out of life, he certainly cannot make sense out of death. This book is a feeble attempt to do so.
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