Review: The Blind Watchmaker

This book is a slow, slow read. If I had a bag of cat treats for every time my People rubbed Her eyes and put the bookmark back in place (and Her head down on the desk)... Well, let's just say I would no longer have my svelte and girlish figure.

But oh! the information in here. And not just the big words, either. Professor Dawkins has taken a lot of time and an extraordinary amount of effort to explain exactly how complex stuff comes from simple stuff.

My feline understanding of the whole thing:

If you have enough time...

...And very, very small changes are taking place as a result of chemicals and biology and physics... (pushes Cartoon Guide to Physics off bookshelf and opens it with a few nudges of her nose) ...Like these 'gamma ray' things, here...

...And you only keep stuff that works better than other stuff...

...You will eventually end up with a cat who writes book reviews.

I *yawn* rest my case. Good night.

Review: The God Delusion

Finished TGD yesterday evening in an epic session at desk... Previously I had been reading it piecemeal, in bed. Much more satisfying to read in proper light, in a solid chair.

The chapter "The Roots of Morality: Why Are We Good?" I found edifying, as it provides a collection of reasonable non-religious explanations for human morality via an evolutionary mechanism. (I apparently fit neatly into the 'Tit for Tat' category... Give everyone the benefit of a doubt once, but avenge the bad stuff.)

"Childhood, Abuse and the Escape From Religion" was a painful chapter to read because it documents the emotional damage that indoctrination can do to kids.

But overall, I got the most out of the chapter "Why There Almost Certainly Is No God", which contains the "God-as-Ultimate-747" argument: A pre-existing being capable of creating an entire universe would be more complex than the complex thing it supposedly "explains".

However, I see no reason that we can't one day evolve into gods. Hey, I'll sign up for that. ;-)