River out of Eden

River Out of Eden

River out of Eden is a book that focuses on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. It’s author, Richard Dawkins has also written other books on evolution such as The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and The Extended Phenotype. In the book River Out of Eden, Dawkins relates life to being a river of genes that flows through time and how genes use organisms as temporary bodies to live in. So even when an organism dies, the genes live on through the offspring.

One of the first claims Dawkins makes is that every organism that has ever lived can look back at their ancestors and know that not a single one of their ancestors died in infancy. Every ancestor made it to adulthood and had procreated at least once in their lifetime. All of us can proudly say we are the product of an unbroken chain of successful ancestors all the way down the line to the first single-celled organism.

Another claim Dawkins makes is that all living organisms