Why the intelligent design lobby thanks God for Richard Dawkins

The Guardian ^ | 03/27/2006 | Madeleine Bunting

[SirLinksalot]

Why the intelligent design lobby thanks God for Richard Dawkins

Anti-religious Darwinists promulgate a false dichotomy between faith and science that gives succour to creationists

Madeleine Bunting Monday March 27, 2006

On Wednesday evening, at a debate in Oxford, Richard Dawkins will be gathering the plaudits for his long and productive intellectual career. It is the 30th anniversary of his hugely influential book The Selfish Gene. A festschrift, How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think, has been published this month, with contributions from stars such as Philip Pullman.

A week ago it was the turn of the US philosopher Daniel Dennett, second only to Dawkins in the global ranking of contemporary Darwinians, to be similarly feted at a series of lectures and debates across the UK launching his book on religion, Breaking the Spell. The two make quite a team, each lavishing the other with generous praise as the philosopher Dennett brings to bear his discipline on the scientific findings of Dawkins.

The curious thing is that among those celebrating the prominence of these two Darwinians on both sides of the Atlantic is an unexpected constituency - the American creationist/intelligent-design lobby. Huh? Dawkins, in particular, has become their top pin-up.

How so? William Dembski (one of the leading lights of the US intelligent-design lobby) put it like this in an email to Dawkins: "I know that you personally don't believe in God, but I want to thank you for being such a wonderful foil for theism and for intelligent design more generally. In fact, I regularly tell my colleagues that you and your work are one of God's greatest gifts to the intelligent-design movement. So please, keep at it!"

But while Dembski, Dawkins and Dennett are sipping the champagne for their very different reasons, there is a party pooper.

[wideawake]

Interesting article. The journalist who wrote it clearly agrees completely with both Dawkins and Dennett about religion, but believes that by their ripping off of the mask of evolutionism they are forgoing the chance to swindle millions of good-natured believers into buying evolutionism as a philosophy.

[mlc9852]

We have to get past Easter first!

[PatrickHenry]

Archives.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Interesting article. The journalist who wrote it clearly agrees completely with both Dawkins and Dennett about religion, but believes that by their ripping off of the mask of evolutionism they are forgoing the chance to swindle millions of good-natured believers into buying evolutionism as a philosophy.

I'm just happy to have at long last found the reason for the alliance between atheist enlitghtenment science and the quaint beliefs of "indigenous pipples" (ie, shamanism is beneficial). I guess this is why us "super-advanced" rednecks are now supposed to ditch our religious beliefs and become atheists while carefully shielding our quaint, dear, backward cousins from the adulteration of the purity of their cultures by alien Western science and rationalism!

How smart can scientists be if they don't even know that Genesis isn't in the "new testament?" Yet they're absolutely convinced that "chr*stianity" is the only thing in the world dedicated to Genesis or opposed to evolution and that only "chr*stian extremists" (like yours truly?) think this way.

Of course there are plenty of Orthodox Jews, including rabbis, who will tell the world that it is quite possible to accept that evolution is the means G-d used to create the world and that the early verses of Genesis are a non-literal allusion to this. But curiously, they never get around to telling their audience that (unlike chr*stian and non-Orthodox Jewish evolutionists) once they arrive at Adam on Day Six they suddenly shelve all that and become hillbilly-literal.

I tend to value consistency!

[dennisw]

bttt

[Old Professer]

If we all truly believed beyond any doubt that death is the step through the door of eternal reward, we would all be lined up waiting to enter.

[Zionist Conspirator]

If we all truly believed beyond any doubt that death is the step through the door of eternal reward, we would all be lined up waiting to enter.

It's a good thing that no such slightest doubt of any kind exists about the absolute meaninglessness of everything.

[Old Professer]

Nihilism is not rationalism; cats torture their prey for no good reason one can tell, yet the prey struggles to the very end.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Nihilism is not rationalism; cats torture their prey for no good reason one can tell, yet the prey struggles to the very end.

I fail to understand why a random, meaningless, self-existent universe imposes a metaphysical obligation of rationality upon the human species (or any other, for that matter).

[RogueIsland]

Dawkins has made it quite clear that he does not believe that believing in the scientific accuracy of the TOE requires a belief in atheism, and he has been quite irritated with people who ascribe that to him. Those folks generally are either quoting misinformation or are pushign their own agenda.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

I fail to understand why a random, meaningless, self-existent universe imposes a metaphysical obligation of rationality upon the human species (or any other, for that matter).

Bottom line: the Universe doesn't impose any obligations on us. A deity may do so (assuming said deity exists, which is an issue of faith, not of proof).

We are rational, tool-using creatures because that is what we are by our nature. WHY we are that way is another question entirely, one that has been endlessly discussed since two cavemen had their first bull session over free-range mastodon steaks, and that will no doubt be questioned further until the very last human leaves this life and finds out what happens next.

[js1138]

How smart can scientists be if they don't even know that Genesis isn't in the "new testament?"

The argument I hear on these threads is that Jesus affirmed the need to interpret the historical writings of Moses literally. This, of course, is in contrast to the need to take the Law literally.

[wideawake]

If we all truly believed beyond any doubt that death is the step through the door of eternal reward, we would all be lined up waiting to enter.

I'm ready to go whenever I'm called. Consider me lined up.

[theFIRMbss]

>If we all truly believed beyond any doubt that death is the step through the door of eternal reward, we would all be lined up waiting to enter

I truly believe
beyond any doubt Anna
is filet of soul . . .

But that doesn't mean
I drop what I'm doing and
camp out on her lawn . . .

[wideawake]

Your analysis is superficial.

One can believe that the Torah is historically literal and also be intelligent enough to know that Gentiles are not bound to fulfill the 613 mitzvot.

[js1138]

I was not arguing, but merely reporting the kind of statements that get posted here.

[orionblamblam]

Yay! Creationism triumphant over those dirty Dawrinists! Next, we can get to work on defeating those dirty Galileans:

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/world/14202379.htm

'Galileo Was Wrong,' claims geocentrist writer
proves Earth is center of universe, author argues

Sungenis is a geocentrist. He contends the sun orbits the Earth instead of vice versa. He says physics and the Bible show that the vastness of space revolves around us; that we're at the center of everything, on a planet that does not rotate.
He has just completed a 1,000-page tome, "Galileo Was Wrong," the first in a pair of books he hopes will persuade readers to "give Scripture its due place, and show that science is not all it's cracked up to be."

[Dumb_Ox]

This article states the obvious, but I'm still glad he states it. Village atheists can make most anything seem reasonable in comparison to their own pathetic rants.