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150 years ago the momentous findings in Charles Darwin's masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, shook the scientific and religious world to its core. Perhaps more astonishing, the Creation-Evolution debate sparked by his seminal work of 1859 continues unabated in the 21st century. Now, Richard Dawkins, world renowned evolutionary biologist and famous atheist, takes on the Creationists with a brilliant and uncompromising look at the incontrovertible evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution.
The mass of data that proves the theory is vast, with scientific fingerprints numerous and varied. The logic Dawkins employs to explain it is the same throughout The Greatest Show on Earth: the evidence that we see is exactly what we should expect to see if evolution had happened. He examines the facts from the point of view of flora and fauna, from cabbages to Great Danes. Anatomy yields a raft of clues whether from mice or fish, and the structure of molecules underscores the message even more convincingly. With answers to a miscellany of common questions, and detailed descriptions of what our ancestors would have looked like at various landmark dates, Dawkins leaves us with little room for doubt.
Richard Dawkins is the renowned academic responsible for such works as The Selfish Gene through to the phenomenal The God Delusion. Recently, he presented The Genius of Charles Darwin, a three-part television series examining the legacy of the great scientist and some of the issues covered in this timely book.
"[...] He is an awesome thinker, a superb writer whose explanatory skills I envy, who dismisses his opponents with the thoroughness of a top silk."
– The Times
"Dawkins gathers up the weight of evidence into a huge lump and hurls it at us from the highest heights his rhetoric can scale [...] but his grandness of vision still dazzles."
– The Sunday Telegraph
"In the bicentennial year of Darwin's birth Mr. Dawkins fills a gap in his oeuvre by setting out the evidence that the "theory" of evolution is a fact. And what a lot of evidence there is."
– The Economist
"With characteristic flair and passion, Dawkins has put on a stunning exhibition of the evidence for evolution. In his own words, "Evolution is a fact [...] and no unbiased reader will close the book doubting it"
– Dr Alice Roberts, Biological anthropologist, author & broadcaster
"Whether it's Lenski's bacteria or our own ancestors, Richard Dawkins discusses the evidence for evolution with his usual charm, style, clarity and brilliance."
– Simon Singh, author of Fermat's Last Theorem
"This is the book Richard Dawkins needed to write and many need to read – a comprehensive account of evolution which faces the difficulties and questions his critics have raised. In it he draws on his great ability to write about science in a way that is clear, absorbing and vivid."
– Lord Harries of Pentregarth (formerly Bishop Richard Harries)
