7 Individuals + Societies: Non-Religious Beliefs

Examines many different natural phenomena in the world, such as how stuff is made of, how old is the universe, and what causes tsunamis, and other topics.

The watchmaker belongs to the eighteenth-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte. Natural selection--the unconscious, automatic, blind, yet essentially nonrandom process Darwin discovered--has no purpose in mind. If it can be said to play the role of a watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker in nature.

The newest addition to John Brockman's Edge.org series explores life itself, bringing together the world's leading biologists, geneticists, and evolutionary theorists.