Dawkins and Design

Creation magazine June-August 2009 edition.

 Editorial

 by David Catchpoole

Romans 1:20 states that everyone should be able to understand that there is a Creator from what has been made, “so that men are without excuse”. But in this “Year of Darwin”, there’s no shortage of outspoken Darwin adulators who unashamedly proclaim the world was not created. 

     Surely the best known of these is Richard Dawkins. In his book The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins wrote: “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose”, then proceeds to argue that they were not.

     Dawkins has vociferously continued to proclaim the “no design, therefore no designer” line. But when Ben Stein (in the recent documentary Expelled) asked him, “What do you think is the possibility that Intelligent Design might turn out to be the answer to some issues in genetics, or evolution?” Dawkins responded:

     “It could be that at some earlier time, somewhere in the universe, a civilisation 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...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.”

     For Dawkins that’s quite a concession.

     Actually, scientists have looked and are still looking at the details of biochemistry and molecular biology and finding unmistakable evidence of design. Design so good that scientists would love to copy it if only they knew how.

     However, if Dawkins were to accept the evidence of “a signature of some sort of designer”, it would not be the God of the Bible. “No,” Dawkins said to Stein firmly, “nothing like that.”

     As Stein said later, “So Professor Dawkins was not against intelligent design, just certain types of designer, such as God.”