Critical Reception
The book received a positive critical reception on its release. Writing in The Times, Anjana Ahuja described Dawkins's account of the evidence for evolution as "fine, lucid and convincing". Though she criticized him for aggrandising the role of Islam in the spread of creationism and suggested that his writing style is unlikely to persuade disbelievers, Ahuja described these as merely "quibbles" and recommended the book to all readers. The Economist also featured a favourable review, praising Dawkins's writing style as "persuasive" and lauding its educational value. Mark Fisher in The List called Dawkins a "compelling communicator", adding that the book was "illuminating" and praising the use of humorous anecdotes throughout. The Sunday Telegraph awarded it "Book of the Week", with reviewer Simon Ings describing Dawkins as a "master of scientific clarity and wit". Although Ings felt that anger had interfered with Dawkins's creativity to an extent, he also praised sections of the book as "magical" and "visceral", concluding that there was a "timeless merit" to the overall theme.
The New York Times reviewer, Nicholas Wade, while praising the work overall, criticised Dawkins's assertion that evolution can be treated as an undeniable fact and asserted that Dawkins's insistence that it is a fact makes him as dogmatic as his opponents. Moreover, characterising his opponents as "history-deniers," “worse than ignorant” and “deluded to the point of perversity” Wade asserts, "is not the language of science, or civility." Wade sees both Dawkins and his creationist opponents as wrong. Wade's review was subsequently criticized in multiple letters to the New York Times. In one, Daniel Dennett asserted that creationism deserves as much respect as believing that the world is flat. The second letter, from Philip Kitcher, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, asserted that evolution and other scientific findings "are so well supported that they count as facts".
Read more about this topic: The Greatest Show On Earth: The Evidence For Evolution
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