Richard Dawkins spoke a couple of days ago at the New York Academy of sciences, discussing his new book “The Greatest Show on Earth”. Going through it chapter by chapter, he discussed it as a proof of evolution, and indeed it sounds like it makes an argument from modern and older evidence. The house was crowded and there were some interesting questions in the Q and A, including one young lady who asked how she could persuade her religious family to read the book.

There’s a full color plate in “The Greatest Show on Earth” of Darwinius masillae described in the legend as a “Superlink” that goes on to use one of my favorite underused words “preposterous” with respect to some of the hype, so I am interested to further hear his take on this and read the tome. Other interesting points were that Dawkins defended his description of evolution as a fact from Nicholas Wade’s review which discusses the use of the word fact vs. theory. Dawkins seemed to suggest that a theory is something more for those in the realms of philosophy of science. The argument being conveyed, I think, is that the idea that the earth is round and that evolution occurs will likely never be disproved, thus fact.