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  • The Blind Watchmaker

  • Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
  • By: Richard Dawkins
  • Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
  • Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (144 ratings)

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The Blind Watchmaker

By: Richard Dawkins
Narrated by: Richard Dawkins,Lalla Ward
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Editorial reviews

Richard Dawkins and his wife, actor Lalla Ward, give a highly entertaining read of Dawkins's 1986 critique of creationism, The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design. The audiobook follows an updated edition of the book from 2006 and provides intricate explanations, by way of witty examples, of why random, infinitesimal gene changes over millions of years have produced us and the world we live in. Dawkins's writing contains a self-deprecating, dry sense of humor that comes to life as he reads his best-selling book. Alternating voices between Dawkins and Lalla Ward provides nice listening contrast while also setting apart examples, clarifications, and segments of greater detail. Dawkins and his wife live in a world that is perhaps more scientific on a daily basis than ours so the book takes great care to vary the delivery of information for greater emphasis and easy understanding.

Dawkins's goal in The Blind Watchmaker is to "remove by explaining" any doubt that anything but scientific fact is behind the origin of the universe. Just because something — like human beings or the universe — is complex does not mean that it cannot be explained. Dawkins works hard to help listeners understand the smaller-than-microscopic changes that evolved through staggering amounts of time, changes humans have a hard time intuitively comprehending. To paraphrase the author, do not draw conclusions from your own inability to understand something. The truth of Darwinism comes in its acceptance of physics, probability, and the unending march of time. Dawkins helps listeners out by using examples that are easier to grasp: for example, the evolution from wolves to domesticated dogs. Or how echo location in bats clearly shows the evolution of a trait necessary for survival of a species.

The Blind Watchmaker, read by the author and by Lalla Ward, is an example of an audiobook best listened to while not driving or operating anything requiring devoted attention. Dawkins calls upon us to think about complex concepts that are not necessarily part of daily life. Led by the author, The Blind Watchmkaer is a lively, humorous explanation of the seemingly mystical yet ultimately understandable maze of evolution that is our world. Along the way it is nice to know that a scientist such as Dawkins can, like us, forget to save information on his computer. Re-creation of his data simply leads to another example of probability and complexity that makes, as Dawkins reiterates, the circumstances of any of us being here surprisingly unique, but scientifically not unusual. —Carole Chouinard

Publisher's Summary

The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte. Natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind, yet essentially nonrandom process Darwin discovered - is the blind watchmaker in nature.

©1986, 1987, 1996 Richard Dawkins (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"As readable and vigorous a defense of Darwinism as has been published since 1859. ( The Economist)
"The best general account of evolution I have read in recent years." (E. O. Wilson, Professor in Entomology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University)
“Dawkins’s explanation of the evolutionary process continues to be timely and revelatory…This dual reading is an interesting model for a scientific text. It helps to clarify and emphasize points… this is a commendable production, and an excellent primer on how evolution works.” ( AudoFile)

What listeners say about The Blind Watchmaker

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    3 out of 5 stars

Heavy, heavy going

This book is not for the faint of heart, and requires some prior genetics knowledge.

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Natural selection vs randomness

I think the most important thing that the book says is that natural selection is not same as randomness

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  • Ben
  • 14-06-2019

A must read for everyone to full understand Darwin

it should be requisite reading/listening for every school student to dispel myth and encourage full understanding of the science underpinning life itself.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Narration poor

The narration of this book skips between Richard and Lalla. Each on their own is fine but together it's very distracting and I'll have to get the hardcopy instead.

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    4 out of 5 stars

good reading, but hard to keep track

good performance
hard to keep track all the terminology, groups and theories. needs an accompanying summary/ terminology pdf

could also do with update re modern DNA understanding and data compression/encoding

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Perfect guide of evolution with natural selection

I liked this book a lot. The selfish gene was too technical, but this was much high level. Waiting for the extended phenotype audio book to be published

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Must read

Great book that helps you understand how evolution works through helpful analogies. It also tells about other hypotheses and proves them wrong. The narration by Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward is excellent.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Clear narration, well written

Clear narration. Interesting ideas presented well. The presence of some unnecessary rants detracted from 5 star rating.

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The watchmaker was blind, but the author is not!

Exceptional book, a great selection in every way! It requires your full attention and some sections require a second listen to absorb it complexity.

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very indepth

Dawkins gives a brilliant explaination of evolution thats in depth. He considers other theories and explains why natural selection is how life evolved here on earth. an excellent book.

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