View source for Climbing Mount Improbable

{{Short description|Book by Richard Dawkins}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = Climbing Mount Improbable
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = File:Climbing Mount Improbable, British first edition.jpg
| caption       = Cover of the British first edition
| author        = [[Richard Dawkins]]
| illustrator   = [[Lalla Ward]]
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United Kingdom
| language      = English
| series        =
| subject       = [[Evolutionary biology]]
| publisher     = Norton
| release_date  = 1996
| english_release_date =
| media_type    = Print
| pages         = 340 pp.
| isbn          = 0-393-03930-7
| dewey         = 575.01/62 20
| congress      = QH375 .D376 1996
| oclc          = 34633422
| preceded_by   = [[River out of Eden]]
| followed_by   = [[Unweaving the Rainbow]]
}}

'''''Climbing Mount Improbable''''' is a 1996 [[popular science]] [[book]] by [[Richard Dawkins]]. The book is about [[probability]] and how it applies to the theory of [[evolution]]. It is designed to debunk claims by [[creationism|creationists]] about the probability of naturalistic mechanisms like [[natural selection]].<ref>{{Cite news| issn = 1091-2339|author=John Horgan|author-link=John Horgan (journalist)| title = The Mystery of Life| work = Slate| accessdate = 2017-01-06| date = 1996-09-17| url = http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/1996/09/the_mystery_of_life.html}}</ref>

The main metaphorical treatment is of a geographical landscape upon which evolution can ascend only gradually and cannot climb cliffs (that is known as an [[adaptive landscape]]). In the book, Dawkins gives ideas about a seemingly complex mechanism coming about from many gradual steps that were previously unseen.

The book grew out of the annual [[Royal Institution Christmas Lectures]], which Dawkins delivered in 1991 (see ''[[Growing Up in the Universe]]''). It is illustrated by Dawkins' wife at the time, [[Lalla Ward]], and is dedicated to [[Robert Winston]], "a good doctor and a good man".<ref>{{Cite web |title=NYTimes |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/23/nnp/20076.html |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Wikiquote|Richard Dawkins#Climbing Mount Improbable (2006)|Climbing Mount Improbable}}

{{Richard Dawkins}}
{{Portal bar|Evolutionary biology|Books}}

[[Category:1996 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Books about evolution]]
[[Category:Books by Richard Dawkins]]
[[Category:Criticism of creationism]]
[[Category:English-language non-fiction books]]
[[Category:English non-fiction books]]