The Greatest Show on Earth, Chapter 11

Chapter-by-chapter thoughts on Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

by John C. Snider © 2009

Chapter 11: History written all over us

Creationists will find it increasingly difficult to explain away the evidence presented in the later chapters of this book.  In Chapter 11, Dawkins shows how our bodies–and those of our animal “cousins”–show not only common ancestry, but the wondrous and inefficient ways in which we have evolved.

Two examples, really, deliver a death-blow to the idea of intelligent design: the existence of eyes in blind, cave-dwelling creatures, and the nonsensical routing of the so-called vagus nerve (which, in humans and other animals, goes way out of its way, from the brain, down into the chest cavity, through a tight U-turn and back up to the larynx).  What possible explanation–other than the whimsy or ineptness of the Creator–could explain these things in terms of Intelligent Design?  And these are just two examples!

On to Chapter 12…!

The Greatest Show on Earth is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Read my thoughts on Chapter 10.

Read my thoughts on Chapter 9.

Read my thoughts on Chapter 8.

Read my thoughts on Chapter 7.

Read my thoughts on Chapter 6.

Read my thoughts on Chapter 5.

Read my thoughts on Chapter 4.

Read my thoughts on Chapter 3.

Read my thoughts on Chapter 2.

Read my thoughts on Chapter 1.