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A Devil's Chaplain : Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
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A Devil's Chaplain : Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love description
Richard Dawkins has an opinion on everything biological, it seems, and in A Devil's Chaplain, everything is biological. Dawkins weighs in on topics as diverse as ape rights, jury trials, religion, and education, all examined through the lens of natural selection and evolution. Although many of these essays have been published elsewhere, this book is something of a greatest-hits compilation, reprinting many of Dawkins' most famous recent compositions. They are well worth re-reading. His 1998 review of Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont's Fashionable Nonsense is as bracing an indictment of academic obscurantism as the book it covered, although the review reveals some of Dawkins' personal biases as well. Several essays are devoted to skillfully debunking religion and mysticism, and these are likely to raise the hackles of even casual believers. Science, and more specifically evolutionary science, underlies each essay, giving readers a glimpse into the last several years' debates about the minutiae of natural selection. In one moving piece, Dawkins reflects on his late rival Stephen Jay Gould's magnum opus, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, and clarifies what it was the two Darwinist heavyweights actually disagreed about. While the collection showcases Dawkins' brilliance and intellectual sparkle, it brings up as many questions as it answers. As an ever-ardent champion of science, honest discourse, and rational debate, Dawkins will obviously relish the challenge of answering them. --Therese Littleton |
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A Devil's Chaplain : Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Read the Second Half First
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This collection of essays starts with Dawkins opining on ape rights, excessive school testing, jury trials, and cloning, among others. He knows which side he is on in every subject, and it is the right side. Anyone who doesn't see it his way is a fool, and he doesn't suffer fools gladly. So it was with decreasing enthusiasm that I approached the second half of the book. There, Dawkins lets down his bluster a bit in pieces on Stephen Jay Gould (his professional rival), Douglas Adams, September 11, and his own daughter. As Dawkins becomes more thoughtful and just a tiny bit less sure of himself, the essays become more powerful.A Devil's Chaplain was, for me, a good introduction to Dawkins, and I'm looking forward to reading more.
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