Name: The Greatest Show on Earth
ISBN: 9781416594796

The Greatest Show on Earth

Britain's greatest science writer comprehensively rebuts the creationists by pulling together the incontrovertible evidence for evolution. Charles Darwin's masterpiece, _On the Origin of Species_, shook society to its core on publication in 1859. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution would provoke but he would surely have raised an incredulous eyebrow at the controversy still raging a century and a half later. Evolution is accepted as scientific fact by all reputable scientists and indeed theologians, yet millions of people continue to question its veracity. In _The Greatest Show on Earth_ Richard Dawkins takes on creationists, including followers of 'Intelligent Design' and all those who question the fact of evolution through natural selection. Like a detective arriving on the scene of a crime, he sifts through fascinating layers of scientific facts and disciplines to build a cast-iron case: from the living examples of natural selection in birds and insects; the 'time clocks' of trees and radioactive dating that calibrate a timescale for evolution; the fossil record and the traces of our earliest ancestors; to confirmation from molecular biology and genetics. All of this, and much more, bears witness to the truth of evolution. The Greatest Show on Earth comes at a critical time: systematic opposition to the fact of evolution is now flourishing as never before, especially in America.

What Hacker News says

chistevOct 2026

1. Animal Farm by George Orwell

2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes [1]

3. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

4. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette Mccurdy

5. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris

6. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe [2]

7. Cosmos by Carl Sagan

8. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins [3]

9. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

10. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander [4]

11. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

12. Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan [5][6][7]

13. Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide to Atheism by Richard Dawkins

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076596

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47452253

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48326741

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539535

[5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49751771

[6] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49740712

[7] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49739256

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chistevSep 2026

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Night by Elie Wiesel

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris

Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris

Lying by Sam Harris

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

https://www.rxjourney.net/list-of-books-i-finished-reading-i...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize_for_General_Non...

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dwaltripFeb 2022

Of course my moral views are affected by my culture. That is a big part of how morality works.

I encourage you to learn more about evolution. The evidence and coherency is overwhelming. “The Greatest Show on Earth” by Richard Dawkins is a very good brief overview of the evidence. It’s quite stunning.

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dwaltripOct 2019

You should try reading "The Greatest Show on Earth". It lays the overwhelming evidence for evolution out in stunning detail. It's absolutely incredible.

Also, Dawkins manages to stick to the facts and evidence and almost entirely avoid the religion bashing in this book, making it much more approachable for religious folks.

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dwaltripAug 2019

I believe "macro evolution" is a bit of a controversial term, as it that term and the corresponding "micro evolution" have been co-opted by creationists, who obtusely claim that there is no evidence for macro evolution, but that they accept micro evolution.

I'm reading "The Greatest Show on Earth" (which is a fantastic book for a broad overview of the evidence for evolution. The evidence is truly astounding and awesome). Dawkins spends a bit of time arguing that the distinction between micro and macro isn't that meaningful. However, I just skimmed the Wikipedia pages and it seems the terms may have some legitimate usage? Perhaps his unfortunate dealings with creationists have simply spoiled the terms for him.

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merouanSep 2017

Strongly recommend you read Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth" (https://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Earth-Evidence-Evolutio...) and come back to tell us what you think :)

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