The Magic of Reality... by Richard Dawkins

This is an ebook, an iPad app. This book generated much attention when it came out, for different reasons. It was highly rated as an educational app and I thought I'd give it a try. But this is one book which perhaps should come with its own cinema-like rating, not because it contains vulgarity but because it denies religion its place in the big picture. Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist, which basically puts him alongside Darwin. To put it in a nutshell, he believes science is all that is needed to explain everything there is to be explained on this earth.

I've gone through the book and it has a very educational content. The artwork is really nice. It has interesting experiments. Layout is excellent, pleasing to the eye. And animations are used to make concepts very easy to grasp. Almost every chapter has an animation to explain a concept or an experiment to help us appreciate science. It has an edge over traditional text books because everything feels so vivid and there is interaction. One can feel science coming alive in this book. This is an example of how the various media can be utilized to really enhance the learning process. I enjoyed the science coming alive part very much.

Dawkins is an atheist. So it's only expected that he treads the atheist line. Everything else is myth to him. His contention is that faith is a delusion and to that end, he refers to everything as myth except that which can be proven by science. But then again, the science of evolution is also based on many conjectures cos no one has truly seen it happen... it's all a belief too! Science when used to proof the theory of evolution lends it much credence too. But this form of science, as much as I may not fully understand it, is also based a lot of us filling in the blanks with many unknowns too.

Years ago I remember reading about Lucy, the Australopithecus aferensis discovered in Kenya. It was hailed as a significant find as evolutionists said that it was the missing link to man's evolution. Then other studies came out saying that it might not have been a direct descendent. And there was Ardi, supposedly another link. As certain as the study of science is supposed to be, the study of evolutionary science is also filled with big holes with big question marks.

Anyway, this book is quite an eye-opener for me, an experience on its own. It's a little pricey though, @ USD$13.99. Book 25.