The Blind Watchmaker is the foundational text for understanding evolution today. In the eighteenth century, theologian William Paley developed a famous metaphor for creationism: that of the skilled watchmaker. In The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins presents an elegant response to demonstrate that the complex process of Darwinian natural selection is unconscious and automatic. If one can say that natural selection plays the role of a watchmaker in nature, then it is a blind one – working without foresight or purpose.

In an eloquent, uniquely persuasive account of the theory of natural selection, Dawkins illustrates how simple organisms gradually change over time to create a world of enormous complexity, diversity, and beauty.