Perspective

Richard Dawkins is Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is the author of seven books, including The Selfish Gene. This book, The Blind Watchmaker, was originally published in 1987 and was reissued as a new edition in 1996. Dawkins's avowed intention is to refute the denials of the truth of evolution and to educate the public in the real explanation of the complexity and beauty of design of living organisms found in the world today.

The intended audience is the general public who are either interested in the Darwinian theory of evolution or are those who need to be educated as to the true and detailed evidence of the general account of the theory of evolution.

The title of the book and the initial motif is the famous treatise by the eighteenth-century theologian William Paley entitled Natural Theology - or Evidence of the Existence and...