The following is part of an interview between Ben Stein and Richard Dawkins.
BEN STEIN
"What do you think is the possibility that Intelligent Design might turn out to be the answer to some issues in genetics or in Darwinian evolution?"
RICHARD DAWKINS
"Well, it could come about in the following way. It could be that at some earlier time, somewhere in the universe, a civilization evolved, probably by some kind of Darwinian means, probably to a very high level of technology, and designed a form of life that they seeded onto perhaps this planet. Um, now that is a possibility, and an intriguing possibility. And I suppose it’s possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the details of biochemistry, 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. But that higher intelligence would itself have had to have come about by some explicable, or ultimately explicable process. It couldn't have just jumped into existence spontaneously. That's the point."
This huge concession should cause Dawkins to stop complaining about the concept of the biblical Creator God. He has stated he is prepared to seriously consider the possibility that an intelligent, extremely highly evolved being could exist; a designer capable of creating molecular biology and seeding it onto another planet. As so often with Richard Dawkins he appears to propose ideas and solutions without ever thinking them through.
In this case he first contemplates this hypothetical ET and then seeks to define exactly how it must have come to exist. He does so on the basis of a theory which he cannot support with evidence at the level of origins. He had earlier in the interview admitted that no-one knows how cellular life came to exist or become so exquisitely organised. He admits his ignorance, says nobody knows and yet he is quite certain about what things cannot happen. Intelligent life cannot just appear out of nothing and do things. But he makes an exception for life and the universe. These can just appear out of nothing, produce a Big Bang and go on to form apparently intelligent systems and indeed thinking beings like himself.
He also knows there can be no evolution prior to the existence of a universe and no evolutionary processes until the first self-replicating biological unit comes into existence. Astonishingly he concedes that a form of intelligent life of a type unknown to us, first evolved, which Dawkins insists it must have done, and developed into a super-intelligence. This being was presumably constructed via a genetic programme similar to our own, how else could it have evolved? Then, on the presumption that it had altruistic instincts this intelligent life designed a form of life, and if this includes ours, then amino acids, DNA, RNA, protein based life.
Has the following ever occurred to him? This purpose built Dawkins E.T. was able to both engage in inter planetary travel and seed life on earth. He therefore attributes great power, almost divine in the biblical sense to this unknown designer. Has he faced the logical consequences of his statement quoted above?
Because God is by biblical definition Extra-Terrestrial, and according to Christian belief He did create biology and seed life on earth. Is this who Dawkins has in mind? If so why hasn’t he followed the logic of his argument? Because if he did he would have to acknowledge that God, according to his own definition, is a perfectly reasonable answer to the question: who or what created and organised it all?
