- Climbing Mount Improbable
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Climbing Mount Improbable Author(s) Richard Dawkins Illustrator Lalla Ward Language English Subject(s) Evolutionary biology Publisher New York : Norton Publication date 1996 Media type Print, Microform, Electronic Pages 340 ISBN 0393039307 OCLC Number 34633422 Dewey Decimal 575.01/62 20 LC Classification QH375 .D376 1996 Preceded by River out of Eden Followed by Unweaving the Rainbow Climbing Mount Improbable is a 1996 popular science book by Richard Dawkins. The book is about probability and how it applies to the theory of evolution, and is specifically designed to debunk claims by creationists about the probability of naturalistic mechanisms like natural selection.[citation needed]
The main metaphorical treatment is of a geographical landscape, upon which evolution can only ascend in a gradual way, not being able to climb cliffs (this is known as an adaptive landscape). In the book Dawkins gives various ideas about a seemingly complex mechanism coming about from many different gradual steps that were previously unseen.
The book grew out of the annual Royal Institution Christmas Lectures which Dawkins delivered in 1991 (see Growing Up in the Universe). It is illustrated by Dawkins' wife Lalla Ward; and is dedicated to Robert Winston, "a good doctor and a good man". The book is divided into ten chapters as follows:
- Facing Mount Rushmore
- Silken Fetters
- The Message From the Mountain
- Getting Off the Ground
- The Forty-fold Path to Enlightenment
- The Museum of All Shells
- Kaleidoscopic Embryos
- Pollen Grains and Magic Bullets
- The Robot Repeater
- "A Garden Inclosed"
External links
- "Climbing Mount Improbable (book reviews), Frank Graham Jr.
- Book review "The Mystery Of Life", John Horgan, Slate, September 1996.
Categories:- 1996 books
- Books about evolution
- Books by Richard Dawkins
- Criticism of creationism
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