Richard Dawkins: Self
Quotes
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Ben Stein : What do think is the possibility that there then, intelligent design might turn out to be the answer to some issues in genetics... or in evolution?
Richard Dawkins : Well... it could come about in the following way: it could be that uh, at some earlier time somewhere in the universe a civilization e-evolved... by probably by 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... this planet. Um, now that is a possibility. And uh, an intriguing possibility. And I suppose it's possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the um, at the detail... details of our chemistry molecular biology you might find a signature of some sort of designer.
Ben Stein : [voice over] Wait a second. Richard Dawkins thought intelligent design might be a legitimate pursuit?
Richard Dawkins : Um, and that designer could well be a higher intelligence from elsewhere in the universe. But that higher intelligence would itself would have to come about by some explicable or ultimately explicable process. It couldn't have just jumped into existence spontaneously. That's the point.
Ben Stein : [voice over] So professor Dawkins was not against intelligent design, just certain types of designers. Such as God.
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Ben Stein : What if after you died you ran into God, and he says, what have you been doing, Richard? I mean what have you been doing? I've been trying to be nice to you. I gave you a multi-million dollar paycheck, over and over again with your book, and look what you did.
Richard Dawkins : Bertrand Russell had that point put to him, and he said something like: sir, why did you take such pains to hide yourself?
Ben Stein : [voice over] But, if the Intelligent Design people are right, he isn't hidden. We may even be able to encounter God through science, if we have the freedom to go there. What could be more intriguing than that?
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Richard Dawkins : We know the sort of event that must have happened for the origin of life.
Ben Stein : And what was that?
Richard Dawkins : It was the origin of the first self replicating molecule.
Ben Stein : Right, and how did that happen?
Richard Dawkins : I've told you, we don't know.
Ben Stein : So you have no idea how it started.
Richard Dawkins : No, no. Nor has anyone.
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Richard Dawkins : ...if you look at the um, at the detail... details of our chemistry molecular biology you might find a signature of some sort of designer.
