Yes, we've made it to a second issue! And as I've already got next week's book planned, issue 3's looking very likely as well. Stand well back, we could be reaching double figures soon...

Anyway, I want to thank everyone who visited the site last week, especially everyone who sent me an email. A whole week with no Monkey Mail - I'd like to think it'll continue, but I have a feeling that this week's book might stir up a bit more controversy. But we'll get to that in a minute.

As you'll see above, there are links to two new pages - Reader Recommendations and Feedback, specially designed to give you the chance to have your say on this site. Please keep those recommendations coming in, I'm finding them very interesting, though I have a feeling they'll need to add about another 3 days to the week if I'm ever going to find the time to read them all. Or, if you've got any comments on books that have already been recommended, send them in and they'll be added to the Feedback page.

This main page will usually get updated every Sunday night, but keep checking back for the Recommendation and Feedback pages. I'll update those as often as possible, so you won't have to wait a week for new stuff!

Bartcop Books Competition...

(Prize and closing date yet to be determined)

Anyway, it's quite simple - what's the strangest search term you can enter into Google that refers you to this site? And it has to be in the Top 10 results given, not way down the list at number 86 or whatever. Just a bit of fun, and something to while away those empty hours at work.
I mean, let's make use of Google's ability to bring up occasional strange results, right? Email me with your entries and I'll pick a winner at some point when we get a really funny or strange entry.

The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins

Yes, Darwinism and evolution, two words that are guaranteed to get the Kansas Board of Education frothing at the mouth written by Richard Dawkins, a name that has the same effect on Creationists and 'believers' in the UK as Madalyn Murray O'Hair does in the US. Dawkins is a man passionate about science (he's Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University) as well as being a prominent atheist and humanist. But on top of all that, he's an excellent writer, able to open up and explain science to anybody with real passion, enthusiasm and humour.

The Blind Watchmaker is Dawkins' description of the process of evolution and natural selection, a counter to the old Creationist argument of William Paley that 'if one finds a watch in a field, one doesn't assume it has always been there but that there must have been a Watchmaker.' This argument is then extended to say that because life is so complex, there must too have been a Watchmaker, in the form of God, to create it as it is far too complex to have arisen on its own. In the time before Darwin this may have been an interesting argument, but as Dawkins' sets out to prove, 'it is wrong, gloriously and utterly wrong.' He takes on this and other Creationist canards, such as the argument that the eye is too complex to have come about naturally.

Blind Watchmaker is not a dispassionate scientific treatise, but an engaged argument against, and demolition of the Creationist case against evolution. Dawkins' writing shines with his passion for the subject, and is bolstered by his experience as an evolutionary biologist, allowing him not just to present detailed and specific examples of how evolution works, but to explain it in a way that makes it understandable for everybody. He doesn't talk down to his audience, expecting them to believe what he says but engages the reader in the discussion, making you think through the arguments he's presenting and question some of the beliefs you have about evolution.

He also counters the argument that explaining everything scientifically robs us of the wonder of seeing the world around us, dragging it all down to the same mundane level. He shows what wonder there already is in the natural world with no need to add any Creator figure into it to add beauty and mystery to it. Looking at how animals do what they do and how they have developed the ability to do that over millions of years shows us the complexity that can come from such a simple process as evolution, how minute changes in DNA can enable something to survive just a little bit better and grow and develop into something wonderful.

It's in these sections of the book that Dawkins really shines, taking the reader on a step-by-step journey through the evolutionary process. Using a simple program he wrote (also called Blind Watchmaker) he 'evolves' computer-generated trees, making tiny changes to their genes and showing just how minor alterations in genetic makeup can produce things even beyond his imagination. The examples he draws from this are then applied in the real world, with examinations of how things like the eye and bat sonar could develop from seemingly nothing, how one 'error' in DNA copying can give an advantage. Again, his writing is driven by his mission to explain to the reader, to help you understand and not just expect you to accept his word as law delivered from on high.

Dawkins makes no apologies for the position he argues from, as a Darwinian, humanist and atheist and that's what makes this book more than just another dry popular science book. He has the biting wit of a satirist when he looks at some of the more absurd arguments proposed against Darwin, yet his engagement with and belief in what he is writing about raises Blind Watchmaker above the ordinary. Dawkins's delights in not just defending his position but taking the battle to the other side, examining the flaws in the arguments as well as coming up with the evidence that disproves them.

I hope you can see why I'm recommending this one to Bartcop readers. Attacking Darwin and evolution is one of the favourite tactics of the Christian Right, all around the world, and besides being a great book that will enhance your own understanding, it's something that can help you in the world at large, showing you the proof you can use to undermine their arguments. Definitely one worth having in your collection, even if it's only to offer it to Jehovah's Witnesses next time they ask you to take a copy of the Watchtower!

But that's it for another week! See you then, when we'll be taking a trip to Russia...