![]() Do intelligent design proponents have a theory to explain that? Were the space squid creators just lazy? If that is the case, it would seem the record shows that the intelligent designers-which I am hypothesizing are super-intelligent purple space squids-evidently spent more than 2 billion years tinkering with single-cell algae and bacteria before they got around to creating multi-cellular species. So, since our esteemed opponents are agnostic with regard to the "source of design," and because intelligent design cannot rule out the hypothesis that super-intelligent purple space squids are not the "source of design" of life on earth, I will provisionally accept that hypothesis for the remainder of my talk.Īs I understand it, intelligent design proponents-such as our distinguished Discovery Institute panelists here-fully accept the fact that the earth is around 4.5 billion years old and that some form of life has existed on earth for about 3 billion or so years. Of course, the irony is that this is precisely what proponents of intelligent design are claiming-that a higher intelligence has repeatedly created life on earth. ![]() In the film, Stein acts like this is a great "gotcha," like it's the silliest thing he's ever heard. This idea was suggested by biologists Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel back in the 1970s. Incautiously, Dawkins brings up the idea that aliens might have seeded life on earth so-called directed panspermia. ![]() Near the end of the silly new anti-evolution film, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed-in which fellow panelist Steve Meyer appeared-host Ben Stein asks Richard Dawkins, who is arguably the best-known living evolutionary biologist on the planet, if he could think of any circumstances under which intelligent design might have occurred. Let me begin by acknowledging that the Discovery Institute website states: "Unlike creationism, the scientific theory of intelligent design is agnostic regarding the source of design and has no commitment to defending Genesis, the Bible or any other sacred text." So far so good. Below is a slightly cleaned up version of my remarks this past Saturday during the FreedomFest 2008 debate: "Is There Scientific Evidence for Intelligent Design in Nature?" The debate took place between Discovery Institute intelligent design proponents Stephen Meyer and George Gilder and evolutionary biology proponents Michael Shermer, the executive director of the Skeptic Society, and me. ![]()
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