* Richard Dawkins Validates the Intelligent Design Argument: In Ben Stein's movie Expelled, Dawkins admits that microbiology could provide the evidence for intelligent design of life on earth. From about 85 minutes into the film (and 3 minutes into the clip below), Ben Stein asks, "What do you think is the possibility that intelligent design might turn out to be the answer to some issues in genetics or in evolution?" Here's a transcript of the reply:
"It could come about in the following way. It could be that at some earlier time somewhere in the universe a civilization evolved, by probably some kind of Darwinian means, to a very, very high level of technology, and designed a form of life that they seeded onto perhaps this planet. Now that is a possibility, and an intriguing possibility. And I suppose that it's possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the details of biochemistry and molecular biology. You might find a signature of some sort of designer… And that designer could well be a higher intelligence from elsewhere in the universe." -Richard Dawkins, in Expelled
* See more on Dawkins: For some ironic observations about Richard Dawkins, see realscienceradio.com/Dawkins.
* I Saw "Expelled" 15 Times: As part of the American RTL movie marathon, Real Science Radio host Bob Enyart saw Ben Stein's film 15 times with other ARTL members in a Denver theater during opening weekend. The widespread claim by evolutionists that somehow atheist Richard Dawkins was misrepresented by editing or tricked about the topic of discussion is untenable. Dawkins is engaged in the discussion with Stein; he admits that the complexity observed in microbiology could be evidence that life on earth originated from a higher intelligence, somewhere out there in the universe. Of course, he claims that such a higher life-form must have evolved by some kind of Darwinian mechanism. But if genetic and cellular complexity provides evidence that life on earth is too complex to arise by chance, then evolutionists like Dawkins and Francis Crick are just punting to claim it must have originated somewhere else. The film is powerful.
ERRATA: On today's show Bob incorrectly reported that Expelled hit the top five at the box office when it actually only hit the Top Ten (which is good for a documentary). The industry website, BoxOfficeMojo.com, had the following ambiguous chart, which it turns out does not indicate box office revenue but rates which movies are most popular on their own website...MOST POPULAR
Sorry for the confusion. -The KGOV Staff |
IN A RELATED STORY: RTL Groups Criticize Republican Schaffer: After the campaign of Colorado Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Bob Schaffer refused to meet with pro-life leader Steve Curtis to address questions about forced abortion, two right-to-life groups issued this joint press release:
Former State Republican Chairman
Criticizes U.S. Senate Candidate Over Forced Abortion
"The pro-life movement will no longer give a pass to candidates like Bob Schaffer who look the other way when Chinese women are forced to abort their children," said Steve Curtis, former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party and spokesperson for American Right To Life Action. "At best Schaffer was negligent investigating coerced abortion in the Mariana Islands. Worse, he has voted (May 2000) for permanent normal trade relations with China, rewarding the regime that forces women to abort their children."
The vice president of Colorado's largest pro-life organization agrees. "At Colorado Right To Life, one of our dearest members, a young woman named Shiu Yon Zhou, is the victim of Chinese forced abortion policy," said Leslie Hanks. "While Bob Schaffer supported (1990s) most-favored nation trading status to Communist China, that government would literally force a woman, like Shiu Yon, down on an operating table and, as one of the most cruel crimes imaginable, kill her child within her own womb."
"As a Chinese woman, I know the horror and shame of forced abortion," said Shiu Yon Zhou. "And I beg Mr. Schaffer to not look the other way, and to apologize for being part of the problem. He calls himself pro-life, but how can he be when he is not outraged by Chinese forced abortion? That is worse than pro-choice."
"I've been to the Mariana Islands," said Curtis. "CNMI is not a place to hand out millions of hard-earned U.S. tax dollars. I question the rationale of sending Bob Schaffer to investigate forced abortion in the Mariana Islands when he continues to look the other way tolerating that horrific practice."
Today's Resource: Read American Right To Life's great Expelled Movie Marathon press release. RSR also recommends the great movie from our friend, film producer Fred Foote, in which Hollywood finally gets the Scopes Monkey Trial right: Alleged starring Brian Dennehy (Rambo), Fred Thompson (Law & Order), Colm Meany (Star Trek), and Ashley Johnson (The Help, The Avengers).