The Blind Watchmaker & Evolution Theory

In The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins strongly supports Darwin's theory of evolution, and uses various examples to support the theory of evolution and the idea of a universe without design. The title of the book explains the way he sees evolution. He borrows the idea of a watchmaker from William Paley's musing: if you were to find a watch lying on the ground, you would know that there must have been some person who had made it, who had designed it with its specific function in mind, and so with the universe: someone must have designed and made it, because it is too intricate to have come into existence by chance, as are the plants and animals who inhabit it. This is Paley's argument in favor of a divine creator. Dawkins, however, proposes just the opposite. He argues that there is no planning in nature; that Darwin's theory of natural selection, the "blind, unconscious, automatic process" which explains the existence and purposeful form of all life - has no purpose in mind.

It has no mind, and no mind's eye. It does not plan for the future. It has no vision, no foresight, no sight at all. It can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker (p. 5).

Dawkins compares natural selection to a blind watchmaker because natural selection

does not see ahead, does not plan consequences, has no purpose in view. Yet the living results of natural selection Dawkins overwhelmingly impress us with the appearance of design as if by a master watchmaker,

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