Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15896 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-09-01
• Rating: Exempt
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 150 minutes

DVD Description

In 1859, Charles Darwin published Origin of Species – and nothing would ever be the same again. Evolution by natural selection is probably the most powerful idea anyone ever had.

In this three-part series for Channel 4, Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary scientist and bestselling author, takes us on a journey of discovery. How does evolution work? How do we know it’s true - and why do some people still deny it? As evolved creatures, do we have to be callous, selfish and immoral? Dawkins echoes Darwin’s emphatic "no".

In the course of his journey, Richard Dawkins visits a New York sperm bank and talks to the women about how they choose the genes of their children. He takes us to Lambeth Palace to visit the Archbishop of Canterbury - and to Kenya to visit that spectacularly well preserved fossil - the Turkana Boy. With its fascinating interviews, stunning photography and authoritative and good-humoured commentary, this series is a must for all who want to understand why we exist.

Synopsis
Evolutionary biologist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins explores the work of Charles Darwin. As one of his heroes, Darwin's theory of evolution has always been at the crux of Dawkins criticism of creationism and religious reasoning. In this fascinating series he brings these ideas to life in an effort to discuss Darwin's influence on modern atheism.

Customer Reviews

Essential viewing
I've just caught up with this three part series and it is precisely what Dawkins should have been "preaching" all along: a clear-headed approach to Evolution, a theory which, despite its simplicity and blatant obviousness (how could it be any other way?) continues to be misunderstood (or, as is more often the case, swept under the carpet). The series addresses not only the theory but also the religious attempts to subvert the teaching of what is the only reasonable approach to explaining the development of species, a subversion as strong in evangelical America as it is in fundamentalist Islamic states such as Iran. Before criticising this series, stop and think: are you offended by what he says, or because all the evidence is against what you have been led to believe?

Interesting, but too much opinion and not enough science
This three-part series promised to be great: a review of Darwin's massively important theory which has dominated scientific development since he revealed it 150 years ago. Modern-day scientist Richard Dawkins believes that Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is THE most important idea to have ever been suggested in human history. In the programmes, Dawkins explains who Charles Darwin was, how he developed his theory, what it is, and why it is still of huge importance today. Dawkins explains how Darwin changed forever the way we see ourselves, the world and our place in it.

The programmes are made up of Dawkins giving straightforward presentation to camera, and of his interactions with colleagues and religious leaders. These segments are interspersed with illustrative action footage (of big cats hunting, for instance, to demonstrate the effectiveness of natural selection). Dawkins does a fair bit of globe-trotting to meet people with relevant viewpoints and show interesting examples of evolution in action. The 'scientists at work' segments usually show man-in-white-coat doing something mysterious with pipettes...

I adore popular science and am fascinated with the study of human evolution, so was thrilled by the prospect of this series. However... there is a downside. Richard Dawkins is fighting a personal battle against superstition and religon, and he uses every opportunity to further that cause. Unfortunately this gets in the way of the very information he is trying to pass on and I suspect he is preaching to the converted in any case (would many creationists really sit down to watch a series all about Darwin's theory of evolution?)

The first episode is mired in an airy-fairy debate where Dawkins attempts to 'prove' to some religious schoolkids that the theory of evolution by natural selection is correct, and that anything else is just superstition. However (even to a confirmed humanist) he offers naff all in the way of actual proof. Showing me a fossil, or a man in a white coat with a lot of test tubes, does *not* prove a theory. Opportunity missed, methinks.
The second epiosde is MUCH better and focuses more tightly on the interpretation and development of Darwin's idea. This is where the really interesting science is revealed -- about how nature's brutality forces each individual gene to fight for its future, and how man is so very close in genetic terms to the apes. There's also a discussion about how Darwinism is misinterpreted and misquoted to give an excuse for appalling behaviour (from bad manners to bad business practive to genocide). This was what I'd hoped for from the whole series.
The final part returns to Dawkins' hobbyhorse where he attempts to convince people that his beliefs are right, and theirs are wrong. His argument is that modern science has proved that evolution is true, but it seems to me that the opportunity to discuss the science in depth (and maybe win some converts that way) has been missed. Instead we get a debate with the Archbishop of Canterbury...
However, there were a few gems in that final instalment, including a brief discussion about how the multi-part reptilian lower jaw evolved into the single-part mamalian one (the left over bones relocated to form vital parts of our ears), and an overview of how hominid skulls changed from ape to sapiens across the millenia. In the end, however, this was more a series devoted to arguing about Darwinism than explaining the nuts and bolts of how evolution works.

So if you want to watch a three hour argument about the theory of evolution then this is perfect for you. If you want to watch a scientific TV series which explains the theory and expounds upon its consequences then you'd be better off with something like Ascent of Man (which is about 30 years old, but still relevant; factual, informative, accessible, thoughtful and intriguing).
And is it just me, or are popular science programmes getting more and more 'popular' with a lot less 'science'...?
7/10

S. Kelly, Glasgow
An excellent review of Darwin's origin of species (fact) not theory. It is very difficult to present the theory of evolution without referring to the creationists. Few scientific findings are and always have been under such irrational, fanatical attack as this one. We have to go back to the days of Giordano Bruno and Gallileo to find scientific breakthroughs that caused the creationists so much grief.Grief that made them so scared they were willing to kill the scientist involved. The job of science is to pursue knowledge based on sound empirical evidence and not fairy stories. Dawkin's is simply trying to implore us to stop being afraid of religious dogma and tell our children the truth instead of trying to scare them with gods and devils.