When I was a kid, I had a four volume set of science books. The name and publisher is long since lost to my memory, but the impact these books had on my young mind resonates even today. The volumes were richly illustrated, written in a lively and engaging manner, and addressed all the questions that my young mind could think of. Space travel, plate tectonics, microscopic wonders, time travel, etc. I recall hours and hours spent with this set of books; reading methodically or browsing aimlessly. So great was their impact on me that even into adulthood, when visiting my parents' house, I would pull these books off a dusty shelf in their basement and sit and reread portions out of sheer nostalgia and admiration.
My recollections of this very special set of science books from my own childhood was powerfully evoked as I sat down with Richard Dawkins' new book The Magic of Reality. Within the first few pages, I was transported back to my 10 year old self by the style of writing and straightforward presentation of top notch science. Bill Bryson, in his A Short History of Nearly Everything, recalls his own experiences of childhood with science books, especially those used in elementary school classrooms. He bemoans the fact that so many times, those books presented fascinating content, but didn't answer the main question that he had; "how do they know that?" In Magic, Dawkins does answer that question, and does it in a way that I think will resonate with a whole new generation of young readers.
The 12 chapters of Magic are structured around questions. Each chapter is titled by the topic question, "Who was the first person?" "Why are there so many different kinds of animals?" "What is a rainbow?" and so on. Each chapter begins with a survey of legend and mythology to explore how these questions were answered before the advent of science and the age of reason. The text is lavishly illustrated by Dave McKean with beautiful, colorful artwork. Every page has art, making for a compelling and interesting presentation.
Dawkins' abilities as a communicator and explainer are well known. He is arguably the most significant popularizer of science since Carl Sagan and Stephen Jay Gould. Predictably, given that his own expertise is in evolutionary biology, he has made his most significant impact in presenting evolution to a general readership. His first book, The Selfish Gene, is recognized as a seminal work and has sold over 1 million copies since its publication in 1976. He has been one of the most outspoken scientific voices combatting creationism in all its forms, and many of his publications in the 1980's and 90's were wonderful expositions of natural selection (The Blind Watchmaker and Climbing Mount Improbable). His most recent book prior to Magic was The Greatest Show on Earth, his major exposition of the evidence in favor of Darwin's theory.
So it's no surprise that I found the most engaging material in Magic are the chapters that deal directly with evolution. Dawkins takes it as a given that his readers - kids - are capable of understanding where we really come from. Evolution may be a complex academic discipline, but its basic tenants can be understood by anyone bothering to look at the issue seriously. With this book, Dawkins presents yet another opportunity for people to do so, this time in a vehicle aimed at young readers.
Many of the arguments he presents can be found in other forms in some of his earlier writings. My favorite, by far, is found in chapter 2, "Who was the first person?" In this chapter, he uses an analogy that he's used before to illustrate the principle of gradual change and the fuzzy boundaries between species. Imagine, he says, if you take a picture of a person each and every day of their life. The picture taken on Tuesday, October 4th will look much like the picture taken Monday, October 3. In fact, over a period of days or weeks, not much change will take place. However, compare the October 4th picture with the picture of the same date of the year before, and you'll see some noticeable change. Compare pictures taken a decade apart, and you'll see even more dramatic differences. So then, he continues, when did the infant become the toddler? When did the child become the adolescent, or the boy the man? Such distinctions are impossible to identify on the scale of the minute changes that take place day to day.
Dawkins then enlarges the model and asks us to image a picture taken once a generation; a man compared to his father, his grandfather, great grandfather, and so on, back in time over tens, hundreds and thousands of generations. How far back to we have to go before our ancestors are so very different from us? It's a fascinating thought experiment, and one that he and McKean illustrate beautifully by adding a horizontal stack of photographs to the bottom of each page of the chapter, thousands of photos tightly stacked and trailing across the page and onto the next. At intervals, the illustrations show a random picture plucked out so we can see it. Here a distinctly primitive man (the 50,000th-great-grandfather), two pages later a distinctly simian creature (your 250,000th-great-grandfather) and so on. His point, of course, is that imperceptible changes, when stacked up over hundreds of thousands of generations, add up to real and substantial changes, and the eventual emergence of new species.
The book is filled with many such apt presentations and illustrations, but some of the content felt a bit forced. It appeared almost as though Dawkins had certain topics that he wanted to (or felt he needed to) cover, but rather than having an entire chapter devoted to then, he shoehorned them in somewhere else. One example of this occurs on pages 106-107, a two-page spread that illustrates and explains the phenomenon of free-fall, so-called weightlessness. This two-page spread is anchored by a McKean reproduction of Isaac Newton's classic illustration of the cannon atop a mountain sitting atop a miniature earth. Dotted lines illustrate how the cannon ball falls to the ground after it's fired from the barrel. The further the ball is hurled though, the further around the curved surface of the earth it travels, because the curvature causes the surface to drop away from the ball, even as the ball is dropping toward the ground. Finally, the ball is fired with enough velocity that it continues all they way around, as the ground drops away at the same rate that the ball falls. Ignoring resistance from the atmosphere, the ball would "fall" around the Earth forever.
It's a typically clear and compelling explanation, and illustrated beautifully, and you would not be surprised to find it in a chapter entitled "Why are people and things weightless in spaceships?" or something similar. This explanation, however, is in the chapter entitled "Why do we have winter and summer?" Now clearly, the concept of an orbit is important here, because a necessary part of the explanation of the seasons involves understanding the behavior of the Earth as it orbits the sun. However, it seemed a bit pedantic and overkill to have it embedded in the main narrative of the chapter on seasons instead of as a sidebar or inset. Or indeed, as a separate chapter altogether, dedicated to the interesting topic of weightlessness.
This observation leads me to another on the book itself. I was surprised when it arrived in the mail and found it was such a big book. Two hundred seventy pages (including index) and in a large format with fairly dense text. For some reason, ever since I heard about the book in pre-publication press releases, I was expecting a children's book. I had envisioned a large layout, 40-50 page book aimed at predominantly early elementary aged kids. This book is clearly aimed at younger readers, but much more middle school to younger high school students. The material is simplified, but by no means simple.
Though Dawkins has made his reputation as a scientist and science popularizer, over the last five years he has also become well known as one of the most outspoken atheists and critics of religion in the world. His best selling book is not about biology at all, but atheism. His 2006 publication of The God Delusion sold over 2 million copies and raised the issue of atheism to the level of a major public conversation. What role, if any, does Dawkins' outspoken criticism of religion play in this new book? As one might predict, he does not shy away from the question, but neither does he confront it head on. As noted earlier, each chapter commences its exploration of the question at hand by surveying the myths and legends that were used to explain the unknown prior to the rise of science. Even before he brings the introductory chapter to a close, he fires a shot at a theistic sacred cow with this salvo, concluding a section under the heading the "slow magic of evolution:"
The magical changing of a frog into a prince would be not gradual but sudden, and this is what rules such things out of the world of reality. Evolution is a real explanation, which really works, and has real evidence to demonstrate the truth of it; anything that suggests that complicated life forms appeared suddenly, in one go (rather than evolving gradually step by step), is just a lazy story - no better than the fictional magic of a fairy godmother's wand.
This is characteristic of Dawkins' approach to the question of religion or theism in this book. He does not attack particular beliefs or creeds; he pointedly identifies sloppy thinking and anti-science superstitions. He treats Christianity as just another mythological tradition; one of many. Again, in chapter 7 (What is a rainbow), he says of the story of Noah's flood:
In fact, it is obvious that the Jewish story of Noah is nothing more than a retelling of the older legend of Utnapishtim. It was a folk tale that got passed around, and it traveled down the centuries.
This straightforward dismissal of the obvious point (at least obvious to skeptics of religion) that a story is just a story, and much different from a serious history or legitimate scientific explanation. Whether those stories are part of a cherished religious tradition or not makes no difference in this volume. This is not a book about bashing religious thinking in general, nor any specific religious tradition.
Perhaps his most pointed directive aimed at religion comes in the final two chapters, "Why do bad things happen?" and "What is a miracle?" But even here, it's far from a confrontational critique. In these chapters, Dawkins returns to his strength: a simple and elegant discussion of the natural world and the nature of randomness. It's human nature to look for patterns or meaning. Children, when asked why trees have such rough bark, may reply that it's so animals can scratch themselves by rubbing against them. Likewise, we as a species are primed to see meaning and patterns, especially in the absence of other obvious reasons. Here, he both simplifies and expands upon the argument he and others have used in the past. Religion is simply a subset of thinking in which the formerly unexplainable was rationalized. Most of the reasons that gave rise to religious and other mythological forms of thinking have been slowly whittled away by the steady progress of science and reason. Dawkins' explanation of the nature of miracles and miraculous thinking simply assumes that there is no reason to believe that this trend will not continue. To my humanist and atheistic sensibilities, his approach is both obvious and gratifyingly simple.
Magic is a good book, and a great addition to the library of any student interested in science or the natural world. It will make a great gift this holiday season. It is also a natural step on the, er, evolution of Richard Dawkins' recent literary contributions. His first eight books focused mostly within his field of evolutionary biology, either directly, via historical survey and narrative, or by virtue of his defenses against creationism. He then departed significantly from this course with the 2006 publication of The God Delusion. Next came The Greatest Show on Earth, an inspired collection and presentation of the evidences for evolution. Dawkins has clearly articulated a two-pronged approach to his craft as a promulgator of science education: affirmative presentation and explanation of the science, and a proactive attack on what he sees as the chief enemy of science: the proliferation of supernaturalism (chiefly religion). His forays into documentary filmmaking mirror this dual approach. The appearance of The Magic of Reality this year makes perfect sense to me because it beautifully embodies both messages. Having spoken loud and long in this vein, a book aimed at younger audiences makes perfect sense
Let me end this review with a prediction. Dawkins is not done. I believe that within two years we will see a major television documentary release on the scale of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Dawkins has shown that he can command major audiences in his public speaking tours. He has appeared on Colbert, and his previous television documentaries have shown that his personal charm and commanding presence translate well into the visual medium. Cosmos has never been equaled in its popularity, reach or enduring appeal. Richard Dawkins will make that leap and produce a series for public television (and a US release) that will rival and perhaps even surpass Sagan's own "magic."
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If God sent this book instead of the Bible two thousand years ago, humanity would be exploring the stars today.
Highly accessible and very broad in scope, Dawkins uses everyday terminology and thought experiments to make the most important scientific concepts relatable to the everyday person. I was personally a little disappointed by how little new or surprising information there was to me - but the book is nonetheless charming and educating, and I think everyone has something to learn from it.This is an excellent introduction to scientific concepts and separation of superstition from fact for children and young teens, and I suspect it would do a lot of good in the world if the legions of adults who still do not understand these fundamental concepts were to read Dawkins' work for their own betterment and that of those around them as well.TL:DR - The Magic of Reality is an easy read with high educational value that will add at least a little bit of wisdom to everyone who reads it.
Top reviews from other countries
Wayne Wilmot
Another Great Insight into Reality
Reviewed in Sweden on June 21, 2022
