Richard Dawkins on CNN’s Connecter of the Day
Yet another interview with Richard Dawkins on the sesquicentennial of the publication of On the Origin of Species. In the following he addresses the evolutionary future of humanity (to the extent that he can), the idea of thought and reason, what there was before the big bang (evolution vs. cosmology; addressing the fallacy between the two), Ray Comfort, and evolutionary proof for the dis-existence of a God.
My favorite quote:
Daniel Dennett, the American philosopher, described it as the best idea any one ever had. It’s such a powerful idea, it’s an extremely simple idea, but the amount that it explains is simply colossal, it explains the whole of life, the diversity of life, the beauty of life, and above all the illusion of design. Living things look as though they have been designed at a fantastically complicated level, what, and before Darwin came along everybody thought that they were designed. What Darwin showed was that you can get the illusion of design, with virtually nothing, I mean with a very, very simple idea using the ordinary, benign laws of physics.
Beautify put.
And, of course, the blatant dismissal of Ray Comfort:
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.
Evidence!
November 24, 2009 on CNN
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.
