The Poetry of Reality with Richard Dawkins If God designed it, why is it so badly built?
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Oct 16, 2025 Richard Dawkins delves into why nature seems designed yet is riddled with imperfections. He contrasts natural selection with artificial design through examples like dog breeding. The discussion highlights how minor mutations drive evolution and shape adaptations over time. Dawkins uses fascinating cases, such as the peculiar path of the recurrent laryngeal nerve and the backward retina, to illustrate evolutionary constraints. He underscores how conflicting pressures in nature lead to adaptive compromises, revealing the intricacies of evolutionary design.
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Design Without A Designer
- Natural selection creates the appearance of design without foresight or planning.
- Random mutation plus non-random survival sculpts complex, purposeful-looking traits over time.
No Breeder Needed For Major Change
- Darwin realised selection needs no conscious breeder; differential survival drives change.
- Millennia of small selective differences can produce dramatic transformations from common ancestors.
Evolution Favors Small Steps
- Large mutations are usually harmful because organisms are already well adapted to survive.
- Small, incremental changes are the primary fuel for adaptive evolution over long timescales.