Maybe it’s best for someone who is coming from a strong religious background and needs a starter to break the religion from their mind?
I doubt that their epistemology will let them accept the “fact” that life, including them, can be reduced to molecular interactions. I once exposed an extreme irrationalist / theist to evolutionary ideas, and he said to me that all evolutionists, Dawkins being the prime example, are sponsored by The Enemy—and he meant “sponsored” in a literal sense, by paying money.
(On the other hand, I succeeded in converting one of my programmers into Evolutianity, but he was a pretty smart and rational guy in the first place, perhaps just a bit new-agey).
I think the Selfish Gene and other popular (but technically accurate) introductions to evolution are best for fence-sitters, not for strongly religious people. And I feel that there’s a lot of fence-sitters among religious people these days.
I doubt that their epistemology will let them accept the “fact” that life, including them, can be reduced to molecular interactions. I once exposed an extreme irrationalist / theist to evolutionary ideas, and he said to me that all evolutionists, Dawkins being the prime example, are sponsored by The Enemy—and he meant “sponsored” in a literal sense, by paying money.
(On the other hand, I succeeded in converting one of my programmers into Evolutianity, but he was a pretty smart and rational guy in the first place, perhaps just a bit new-agey).
I think the Selfish Gene and other popular (but technically accurate) introductions to evolution are best for fence-sitters, not for strongly religious people. And I feel that there’s a lot of fence-sitters among religious people these days.