150th anniversary of publication of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”
25 November 2009 by StardustCNN’s Connecter of the Day: Richard Dawkins (11-24-09)
“Speaking to CNN on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s seminal work “On the Origin of Species,” Dawkins said the evidence to support the theory that life on earth came about through natural selection, and not design by God, was “now massively buttressed by molecular evidence.”
And referring to U.S.-based evangelist Ray Comfort, who argues that the universe and life is the result of an intelligent creator, Dawkins said: “There is no refutation of Darwinian evolution in existence. If a refutation ever were to come about, it would come from a scientist, and not an idiot.”
25 November 2009, on 9:57 pm
After the many years I’ve lived I haven’t seen any evidence of intelligent creation outside of the theory of evolution and natural selection. In fact when we stop the clock and I look around at everything that exists at this moment I see a preponderance of unintelligent design a kind of response to the “drunken walk” of natural selection.
For the creationists like the “ Idiot” Ray Comfort I suggest the following: Frustrate the proponents of intelligent design by not opposing the teaching of their “theory” provided they grant equal time to the theories of Malignant Design (why cancer, genetic and other diseases), Incompetent Design (how did we end up with appendixes and bad backs and children being born monsters, etc.) and Predatory Design (as the poet William Blake so aptly put it to the ferocious tiger, “ Did he who made the lamb make thee?”
26 November 2009, on 1:12 am
^ Presactly, Tony D; and one could go on and on with many more design agendas, which I like to joke about when talking about the incredible number of bizarre results of Evolution. Of course, it’s one thing to attribute those sometimes loony or scary aspects of Nature to an unbelievably long, strictly Evolutionary, NON-personal survival process. But, a whole other thing to attribute them to a six day Creation, some six to ten thousand years ago.
Just imagining the latter being planned out in every detailed minutia of almost fiendish, even monstrous design, ala microbes and Dinosaurs, etc. is, I think, mind bogglingly preposterous.
That Blake quote about the tiger obviously just skims the surface; rather nicely, of course. Zooming in a bit closer, however…every minute detail of every bug, animal, microbe…like the outright ‘weird’ mating rituals, f’rnstance, would have to be invented from scratch, and intricately thought out in microscopic detail, like some completely bonkers, Ultimate “Mad Scientist”.
OK; Humor me, a bit?…
God [the Father?]:
“Now, let’s_we three persons of the (totally terrifying) Holy Trinity, that is_see…
Hmmmm…what choreography should we give to the ummm…male peacock? I…I mean…WE…sure outdid ourselves regarding those really neat tail feathers. ‘Having said that’…cue that nice wind chime music rhythm we wrote a bit earlier…something like…
1-2-3-kick-5-6, and have the peacock keep repeating whilst turning and fluttering ‘his’ feathers. And, of course, it goes without saying…the female just HAS to be impressed!
NO?
What’s that, Jeebus? You still like the male owl dance, better?”
And, what about you, Holy Ghost?
Ummm…Holy Ghost?…
Now…where the hell did He disappear to?…
AGAIN!”
Zama, zama!