Abstract
In River Out of Eden, Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker, writes with two chief purposes in promoting the gospel of naturalistic Darwinism: to "accord due recognition to the inspirational quality of our modern understanding of Darwinian life and to Aconvince my readers that `ways of making a living' [i.e., the vast array of diversity in evolutionary development in organisms] is synonymous with `ways of passing DNA-coded texts on to the future' (xii). Using simplified terms, illuminating (though sometimes overly ambitious) illustrations, and disarming humor, Dawkins attempts to explain to the non-expert the plausibility of Darwinian evolution as he has done more technically in other places.