Firstly he ignores the key points made by creationists: for example, arguably one of the most important issues in their teaching is the fact that the Creator made everything perfect, and now through mutation it is deteriorating, which is supported by the observation that mutation invariably causes damage. Irreducible complexity is another major issue, since it proves that complex systems simply cannot evolve gradually, but he only makes mention of it once, with one highly dubious example as we’ll see later.

Secondly he distorts the creationist position alarmingly, and it is difficult to find any excuse for these ‘errors’. For example on page 9 he claims that no reputable scientist denies evolution, thus putting his blinkers on to the number of published scientists who do deny it (see here for a list of creation-scientists, past and present), and thereby demeaning their qualifications. Furthermore, in a footnote on page 212 he includes the blasphemous (because it attributes the work of Satan to God) parody of ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’, written by Eric Idle, praising it as “splendid.” I shall not include any of it here, other than to point out that in one verse God is blamed for creating everything sick, cancerous, and all evil. This is diametrically opposite to the creationist position of a perfect creation, ruined by man’s sin in response to Satan's temptation. It also assumes that creationists believe all living things are now exactly the way they were when created. They do not believe this; but it is a lie perpetuated by the Natural History Museum when I visited.

He talks about 37 species of lemur coming off Noah’s ark and going to Madagascar without leaving any stragglers anywhere else, where the creationist position is that the common ancestors (one pair) of lemurs would have been on the ark, and it is natural selection that has produced the speciation where they survived since that event.

On page 270 he says the Creator planted species on different islands and continents. The creationist position is obviously that this is not what happened - following the dispersal of animals from the ark, natural selection then produced the pattern we now see. This is not Darwinian evolution, since these kind of changes can never produce a different kind of creature.

There are other examples in the book of the distortion of creationist thinking, but these will do for now. Dawkins complains bitterly about the misrepresentation of evolutionist teaching, but is quite happy to misrepresent creationist teaching. He clearly knows what the main-stream creationist position is, as he has obviously studied their websites: indeed, in a rare slip he actually commends Answers In Genesis for their website page which has ‘arguments that should not be used’. So he does not have the excuse that he does not know what they say.

Let me define ‘main-stream creationism’. There’s an awful lot of stuff on the Internet, and it is possible to find somebody saying almost anything on virtually every subject. Indeed, I have found evolutionists telling me we came from monkeys: a concept treated with scorn by Dawkins, and rightly so as this is not the evolutionist position, although they do say the common ancestor to man and chimp would have been an ape-like creature, so the distinction between that and monkeys is rather tenuous. They've also claimed mutation is not random.
 

Likewise it is quite likely one could find a creationist saying something equally silly (indeed, although I am doing my best to ensure everything in this website is accurate, being human I am very likely to have made a few slips here and there). I would suggest that ‘mainstream creationism’ is that which supports the position taken by Christians for most of the history of the Church - that the Bible can and should be taken literally - and therefore sites like Answers In Genesis and Creation Ministries International, to name but two, are places where not only is this position well expressed, but is also well supported by highly qualified scientists in all the key areas.

So I say Dawkins has run up the white flag. Not literally of course, but because he has avoided the key issues and used straw-man arguments. If he can answer creationists, then why not spell out accurately what they teach and then demolish these arguments? There can be only one answer: he is unable to do so and therefore is obliged to make up his own fantasy ‘creationist theories’ that he can destroy.

I shall go through the book, chapter by chapter, picking out particular issues. But in a book of this size, clearly it would be impossible to respond to every point without producing a book of similar size! See here for details of such a book, ‘The Greatest Hoax on Earth’, written by a scientist who replies to Dawkins’ ‘Greatest Show’ in far more detail than is possible here. Perhaps I should point out that, apart from a few tweaks here and there, my response to ‘Greatest Show’ on this page was written before ‘Greatest Hoax’ was published. First though, let us have a few definitions so we are clear about what we are considering.

You will note I frequently use the phrase ‘kind of animal’, or similar. There is a very good reason for the use of the word kind: see here for details.

On page 9, Dawkins complains about some creationists’ use of the word theory, and takes a few pages on the subject, coming up with his own word theorum, to avoid the problem of people saying “It’s only a theory!” He is very particular to ensure a precise definition of words, as can be seen from this, but at the same time plays fast and loose with the word 'evolution'! In this book he is constantly showing us ‘examples’ of evolution when it can be seen quite plainly they are not evolution at all but simply natural selection.

What is the difference? Indeed, many evolutionists will tell you there is no difference: when you see natural selection, you are looking at evolution, they would say. This viewpoint is very simplistic, and one of the main reasons the theory of evolution has survived for so long. Natural selection does create change to physical forms, which have therefore ‘evolved’ to something different from how they began. But when Darwin used the word evolution in the title of his famous book, he was referring to something much greater and very different: he meant the process whereby all living things have developed from a simple organism that sprang from inanimate matter. Saying,

“Natural selection causes evolution and therefore when you see natural selection you are looking at evolution”

is like saying,

“A spade creates a hole in the ground, therefore when you see a spade you are looking at a hole in the ground!”

We have already seen what Darwinian ‘evolution’ requires: an increase in the specified complexity of the genome. On the other hand, natural selection is the process whereby living things with features that enable them to survive best will be able to pass them on to future generations, where those with features less able to help them survive will tend to die out. The result is a shuffling or loss of pre-existing DNA coding: no new genetic information at all will appear. The only way for new information to appear is via mutation, but as this creates damage to the existing system, or at best neutral change (apparently - there is still not enough known about the function of DNA to be sure damage is not always the result), it cannot build up to produce new functions. More on this later. So although the result can be considerable physical change, it can never produce a different kind of living form, no matter how many billions of years it continues.

This is a key point made by creationists - certainly one of the most important - and yet Dawkins does not mention it once, which is extraordinary in a book supposed to be countering their arguments. Of course, avoiding the subject is quite understandable: to draw attention to it would immediately expose the large number of ‘examples of evolution’ he gives as false.