Books Do Furnish a Life
An Electrifying Celebration of Science Writing
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Books Do Furnish a Life
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By:
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Richard Dawkins
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Including conversations with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Steven Pinker, Matt Ridley and more, this is an essential guide to the most exciting ideas of our time and their proponents from our most brilliant science communicator. This audio edition also includes Richard Dawkins in conversation with Christopher Hitchens, in what was to be Christopher Hitchens' last interview before his death in 2011.
Books Do Furnish a Life is divided by theme, including celebrating nature, exploring humanity, and interrogating faith. For the first time, it brings together Richard Dawkins' forewords, afterwords and introductions to the work of some of the leading thinkers of our age - Carl Sagan, Lawrence Krauss, Jacob Bronowski, Lewis Wolpert - with a selection of his reviews to provide an electrifying celebration of science writing, both fiction and non-fiction. It is also a sparkling addition to Dawkins' own remarkable canon of work.
©2021 Richard Dawkins (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 587
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5 out of 5 stars
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4 out of 5 stars
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4 out of 5 stars
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- Unabridged
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5 out of 5 stars
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4 out of 5 stars
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Short
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Determined
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- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 736
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 673
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 673
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4 out of 5 stars
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Please do an unabridged version!
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A Thousand Brains
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For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses map-like structures to build a model of the world - not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Three of the most important words in science are I don't know. Not knowing implies a universe of opportunities—the possibility of discovery and surprise. Our understanding of science has advanced immeasurably over the last 500 years, yet many fundamental mysteries of existence persist: How did our universe begin? How big is the universe? Is time travel possible? What’s at the center of a black hole? How did life on Earth arise? Are we alone? What is consciousness, and can we create it?
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1 out of 5 stars
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3 out of 5 stars
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No new ground is covered.
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The Selfish Gene
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5 out of 5 stars
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Better than print!
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Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Dangerous Religion
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The Blind Watchmaker
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,815
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,436
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,407
The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-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.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Greatest Show on Earth
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,154
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,229
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,206
The Greatest Show on Earth is a stunning counterattack on advocates of "Intelligent Design," explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist "argument". Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Back to His Strong Suit
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
First coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation. Susan Blackmore shows that once our distant ancestors acquired the crucial ability to imitate, a second kind of natural selection began, a survival of the fittest amongst competing ideas and behaviors. Ideas and behaviors that proved most adaptive-making tools, for example, or using language - survived and flourished, replicating themselves in as many minds as possible.
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4 out of 5 stars
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memes are gut bacteria, not godlike puppet masters
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The Magic of Reality
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,258
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,941
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,921
Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist, presents a gorgeously lucid, science book examining some of the nature’s most fundamental questions both from a mythical and scientific perspective. Science is our most precise and powerful tool for making sense of the world. Before we developed the scientific method, we created rich mythologies to explain the unknown. The pressing questions that primitive men and women asked are the same ones we ask as children. Who was the first person? What is the sun? Why is there night and day?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Audio version is superb for us grown-ups
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Making Sense
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 580
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 473
Sam Harris—neuroscientist, philosopher, and bestselling author—has been exploring some of the most important questions about the human mind, society, and current events on his podcast, Making Sense. For Harris, honest conversation, no matter how difficult or controversial, represents the only path to moral and intellectual progress. This audiobook includes talks with Daniel Kahneman, Timothy Snyder, Nick Bostrom, and Glen Loury, on topics that range from the nature of consciousness and free will, to politics and extremism, to living ethically.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Audiobook review (just a podcast collection)
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How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don’t understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Some good points, but not a great book
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2 out of 5 stars
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Riddled With Problems
- By Ben on 11-01-13
By: David Berlinski
-
The Varieties of Scientific Experience
- A Personal View of the Search for God
- By: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan - editor
- Narrated by: Adrienne C. Moore, Ann Druyan
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 176
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 154
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 151
The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Sagan's lectures about the possibility of God
- By David T. on 11-13-17
By: Carl Sagan, and others
-
Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Jeff Crawford
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 426
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 363
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 357
Over a storied career, Daniel C. Dennett has engaged questions about science and the workings of the mind. His answers have combined rigorous argument with strong empirical grounding. And a lot of fun. Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking offers seventy-seven of Dennett’s most successful “imagination-extenders and focus-holders” meant to guide you through some of life’s most treacherous subject matter: evolution, meaning, mind, and free will.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it, but some philosophy background needed.
- By LongerILiveLessIKnow on 11-14-13
-
When Einstein Walked with Gödel
- Excursions to the Edge of Thought
- By: Jim Holt
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 633
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 536
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 538
Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A good overview of scientific theory
- By MJ Walters on 09-11-18
By: Jim Holt
-
Brief Candle in the Dark
- My Life in Science
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 346
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 310
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 306
In this hugely entertaining sequel to the New York Times best-selling memoir An Appetite for Wonder, Richard Dawkins delves deeply into his intellectual life spent kick-starting new conversations about science, culture, and religion and writing yet another of the most audacious and widely read books of the 20th century - The God Delusion.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
I'm a Dawkins Groupie but...
- By Anne on 10-18-15
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Why Darwin Matters
- The Case for Evolution and Against Intelligent Design
- By: Michael Shermer
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 105
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 105
Columnist and publisher Michael Shermer, once an evangelical Christian and a creationist, argues that Intelligent Design proponents invoke a combination of ad science, political antipathy, and flawed theology in their new brand of creationism. He refutes their pseudoscientific arguments and then demonstrates why conservatives and people of faith can and should embrace evolution. Why Darwin Matters is an incisive examination of what is at stake in the debate over evolution.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
TOTAL MISREPRENTATION: WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?
- By Theo Tsourdalakis on 09-04-11
By: Michael Shermer
-
2084
- Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity
- By: John C. Lennox
- Narrated by: Justin Brierley
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 282
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 250
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 251
What will the year 2084 hold for you - for your friends, for your family, and for our society? Are we doomed to the grim dystopia imagined in George Orwell's 1984? In 2084, scientist and philosopher John Lennox will introduce you to a kaleidoscope of ideas: the key developments in technological enhancement, bioengineering, and, in particular, artificial intelligence. You will discover the current capacity of AI, its advantages and disadvantages, the facts and the fiction, as well as potential future implications.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
another stellar work from Lennox!
- By Amazon Customer on 09-03-20
By: John C. Lennox
-
The Blank Slate
- The Modern Denial of Human Nature
- By: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,961
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,291
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,255
In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits, denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
Don't bother. Outdated science & poor logic...
- By ejf211 on 03-31-10
By: Steven Pinker
-
The Blind Watchmaker
- Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,815
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,436
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,407
The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Dream of Reason, New Edition
- A History of Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance
- By: Anthony Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Anthony Gottlieb
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
Already a classic, this landmark study of early Western thought now appears in a new edition with expanded coverage of the Middle Ages. Author Anthony Gottlieb looks afresh at the writings of the great thinkers, questions much of conventional wisdom, and explains his findings with unbridled brilliance and clarity. From the pre-Socratic philosophers through the celebrated days of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, up to Renaissance visionaries like Erasmus and Bacon, philosophy emerges here as a phenomenon unconfined by any one discipline.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
Bias spoils the work.
- By MC on 08-21-20
By: Anthony Gottlieb
-
How to Save the West
- Ancient Wisdom for 5 Modern Crises
- By: Spencer Klavan
- Narrated by: Spencer Klavan
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 188
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 171
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 169
It has been proclaimed many times, but perhaps never more convincingly than now, when every news cycle seems to deliver further confirmation of a world gone mad. Is this the endgame? Author Spencer Klavan is a classicist, with a Ph.D. from Oxford, and a deep understanding of the West. His analysis: The situation is dire. But every crisis we face today, we have faced before. And we can surmount each one. Klavan brings to the West’s defense the insights of Plato, Aristotle, the Bible, and the Founding Fathers to show that in the wisdom of the past lies hope for the future.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Spectacular! A must read!
- By M.A. on 02-15-23
By: Spencer Klavan
-
Why Does the World Exist?
- An Existential Detective Story
- By: Jim Holt
- Narrated by: Steven Menasche
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 299
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 257
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 253
Author Jim Holt explores the greatest metaphysical mystery of all: why is there something rather than nothing? This runaway best seller, which has captured the imagination of critics and the public alike, traces our latest efforts to grasp the origins of the universe. Holt adopts the role of cosmological detective, traveling the globe to interview a host of celebrated scientists, philosophers, and writers.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Fatal Reader Flaw
- By Let's Be Reasonable on 05-09-14
By: Jim Holt
-
Irrationality
- A History of the Dark Side of Reason
- By: Justin E. H. Smith
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 33
Discovering that reason is the defining feature of our species, we named ourselves the “rational animal”. But is this flattering story itself rational? In this sweeping account of irrationality from antiquity to today - from the fifth-century BC murder of Hippasus for revealing the existence of irrational numbers to the rise of Twitter mobs and the election of Donald Trump - Justin Smith says the evidence suggests the opposite.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
A good brain workout
- By ThomasC on 04-09-19
-
Angels and Ages
- A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life
- By: Adam Gopnik
- Narrated by: Adam Gopnik
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 76
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 46
Written 200 years after Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln shared a birthday on February 12, 1809, this insightful account sheds new light on two men who changed the way we think about the meaning of life and death. Award-winning journalist Adam Gopnik's unique perspective, combined with previously unexplored stories and figures, reveals two men planted firmly at the roots of modern views and liberal values.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Connecting Darwin and Lincoln
- By Joshua Kim on 06-10-12
By: Adam Gopnik
-
His Master's Voice
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 181
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 148
A witty and inventive satire of "men of science" and their thinking, as a team of scientists races to decode a mysterious message from space. "I had the feeling that I was standing at the cradle of a new mythology. A last will and testament...we as the posthumous heirs of Them...."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excelent and entertaining
- By Jakub on 01-10-12
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
The Belief Instinct
- The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life
- By: Jesse Bering
- Narrated by: Jesse Bering
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 101
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
Why is belief so hard to shake? Despite our best attempts to embrace rational thought and reject superstition, we often find ourselves appealing to unseen forces that guide our destiny, wondering who might be watching us as we go about our lives, and imagining what might come after death. In this lively and masterfully argued new book, Jesse Bering unveils the psychological underpinnings of why we believe.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
engaging and insightful
- By juliagee on 01-02-15
By: Jesse Bering
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For decades Richard Dawkins has been the world's most brilliant scientific communicator, consistently illuminating the wonders of nature and attacking faulty logic. Science in the Soul brings together 42 essays, polemics, and paeans - culled from personal papers, newspapers, lectures, and online salons - all written with Dawkins' characteristic erudition, remorseless wit, and unjaded awe of the natural world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great writing; distracting reading
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4 out of 5 stars
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Outgrowing God
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In 12 fiercely funny, mind-expanding chapters, Dawkins explains how the natural world arose without a designer - the improbability and beauty of the "bottom-up programming" that engineers an embryo or a flock of starlings - and challenges head-on some of the most basic assumptions made by the world’s religions: Do you believe in God? Which one? Is the Bible a "Good Book"? Is adhering to a religion necessary, or even likely, to make people good to one another? Outgrowing God is a concise, provocative guide to thinking for yourself.
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3 out of 5 stars
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No new ground is covered.
- By God(less) on 11-05-19
By: Richard Dawkins
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The Magic of Reality
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- By: Richard Dawkins
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- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,258
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Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist, presents a gorgeously lucid, science book examining some of the nature’s most fundamental questions both from a mythical and scientific perspective. Science is our most precise and powerful tool for making sense of the world. Before we developed the scientific method, we created rich mythologies to explain the unknown. The pressing questions that primitive men and women asked are the same ones we ask as children. Who was the first person? What is the sun? Why is there night and day?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Audio version is superb for us grown-ups
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By: Richard Dawkins
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The Greatest Show on Earth
- The Evidence for Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,154
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,229
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,206
The Greatest Show on Earth is a stunning counterattack on advocates of "Intelligent Design," explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist "argument". Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from natural clocks that mark the vast epochs wherein evolution ran its course to the intricacies of developing embryos; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Back to His Strong Suit
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River out of Eden
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How did the replication bomb we call "life" begin, and where in the world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading? Writing with characteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (the New York Times described his style as "[T]he sort of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius"), Richard Dawkins confronts this ancient mystery.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it
- By Jeff P on 09-19-20
By: Richard Dawkins
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Science in the Soul
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- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 535
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 533
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great writing; distracting reading
- By Chris DeMuth Jr on 08-09-17
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4 out of 5 stars
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I'm a Dawkins Groupie but...
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3 out of 5 stars
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No new ground is covered.
- By God(less) on 11-05-19
By: Richard Dawkins
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The Magic of Reality
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5 out of 5 stars
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Audio version is superb for us grown-ups
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5 out of 5 stars
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Back to His Strong Suit
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How did the replication bomb we call "life" begin, and where in the world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading? Writing with characteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (the New York Times described his style as "[T]he sort of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius"), Richard Dawkins confronts this ancient mystery.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it
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The Blind Watchmaker
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- Length: 14 hrs and 40 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,815
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The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Challenging textbook more than an enjoyable listen
- By Eric on 01-15-12
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Ancestor's Tale
- A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
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- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 569
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 495
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 487
In The Ancestor's Tale, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey, Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and riveting in its telling.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Please do an unabridged version!
- By MovieExpertise on 09-29-16
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Flights of Fancy
- Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 190
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 168
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 167
The wonder of flight. The science of evolution. From both, Richard Dawkins weaves a fascinating account of how nature and humans have learned to overcome the pull of gravity and take to the skies. Have you ever dreamt you could fly? Or imagined what it would be like to glide and swoop through the sky like a bird? Do you let your mind soar to unknown, magical spaces?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thank God for Richard Dawkins!
- By aaron on 12-19-21
By: Richard Dawkins
-
The Four Horsemen
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- By: Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Sam Harris, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,150
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 973
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 962
In 2007, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett filmed a landmark discussion about modern atheism. The video went viral. Now, the transcript of their conversation is illuminated by new essays from three of the original participants and an introduction by Stephen Fry.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Short
- By Cole Brandon Eckhardt on 03-22-19
By: Christopher Hitchens, and others
-
The Meme Machine
- By: Susan Blackmore, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
First coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation. Susan Blackmore shows that once our distant ancestors acquired the crucial ability to imitate, a second kind of natural selection began, a survival of the fittest amongst competing ideas and behaviors. Ideas and behaviors that proved most adaptive-making tools, for example, or using language - survived and flourished, replicating themselves in as many minds as possible.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
memes are gut bacteria, not godlike puppet masters
- By Hans Thieme on 02-14-22
By: Susan Blackmore, and others
-
The Selfish Gene
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,927
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,543
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,465
Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands to rethink their beliefs about life.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Better than print!
- By J. D. May on 07-31-12
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Godless
- How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists
- By: Dan Barker, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Dan Barker
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 901
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 813
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 810
Part 1 of Godless, "Rejecting God", tells the story of how I moved from devout preacher to atheist and beyond. Part 2, "Why I Am an Atheist", presents my philosophical reasons for unbelief. Part 3, "What's Wrong with Christianity", critiques the bible (its reliability as well as its morality) and the historical evidence for Jesus. Part 4, "Life Is Good!", comes back to my personal story, taking a case to the United States Supreme Court, dealing with personal trauma, and experiencing the excitement of Adventures in Atheism.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
good writing, irritating narration
- By Amazon Customer on 03-23-16
By: Dan Barker, and others
-
The God Delusion
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,334
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9,727
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,616
Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Dangerous Religion
- By Rick Just on 12-21-06
By: Richard Dawkins
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An Appetite for Wonder
- The Making of a Scientist
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 320
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 289
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Story4 out of 5 stars 289
In his first memoir, Richard Dawkins shares a rare view into his early life, his intellectual awakening at Oxford, and his path to writing The Selfish Gene. This is an intimate memoir of the childhood and intellectual development of the evolutionary biologist and world-famous atheist and how he came to write what is widely held to be one of the most important books of the 20th century.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Memoir of a Genius
- By Wurm on 09-25-13
By: Richard Dawkins
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Consciousness Explained
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Paul Mantell
- Length: 21 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 519
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 450
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 441
The national bestseller chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 1991 is now available as an audiobook. The author of Brainstorms, Daniel C. Dennett replaces our traditional vision of consciousness with a new model based on a wealth of fact and theory from the latest scientific research.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Confuses Consciousness with Ego
- By Rahul Yadav on 07-11-19
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A Brief History of Intelligence
- Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains
- By: Max Bennett
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 227
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 199
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 199
Equal parts Sapiens, Behave, and Superintelligence, but wholly original in scope, A Brief History of Intelligence offers a paradigm shift for how we understand neuroscience and AI. Artificial intelligence entrepreneur Max Bennett chronicles the five “breakthroughs” in the evolution of human intelligence and reveals what brains of the past can tell us about the AI of tomorrow.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Flawed fundamental assumptions, good function rvw
- By Duane Leet on 06-01-24
By: Max Bennett
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Starry Messenger
- Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization
- By: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,814
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,367
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,340
In a time when our political and cultural views feel more polarized than ever, Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin chariots of enlightenment—a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science. After thinking deeply about how science sees the world and about Earth as a planet, the human brain has the capacity to reset and recalibrates life’s priorities, shaping the actions we might take in response. No outlook on culture, society, or civilization remains untouched.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Optimistic
- By Anonymous on 09-23-22
What listeners say about Books Do Furnish a Life
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dimitar Nikolov
- 10-19-21
Beautifully told science stories
Valuable summary of all kinds of interesting and important science books that must be read. Dawkins is telling a lot of stories around this books in the elegant and beautiful way that only he can create and in a great company of a real scientist.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rebekah
- 11-03-23
Loved it!
One of my favourite Dawkins books, plus it has Hitch. loved the format too with the included interviews
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