Oxford University Biologist Admits Evolution is Faith, Not Fact

Science's scourge of believers declares his faith in Darwin

Telegraph, Jan. 5, 2005

Roger Highfield, Science Editor

www.telegraph.co.uk

Prof Richard Dawkins, the scourge of those who maintain their belief in a god, has declared that he, too, holds a belief that cannot yet be proved.

In a recent letter to a national newspaper, Prof Dawkins said believers might now be disillusioned with an omnipotent being who had just drowned tens of thousands of innocent people in Asia. "My naive guess was that believers might be feeling more inclined to curse their god than pray to him."

Now the OxfordUniversity evolutionary biologist is among the 117 scientists, futurists and other creative thinkers who have responded to the question: "What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?" posed by John Brockman, a New York-based literary agent and publisher of The Edge, a website devoted to science.

"I believe, but I cannot prove, that all life, all intelligence, all creativity and all 'design' anywhere in the universe is the direct or indirect product of Darwinian natural selection," said Prof Dawkins in the responses published yesterday on www.edge.org.

That, of course, means that there is no need for a god to design the universe: "It follows that design comes late in the universe, after a period of Darwinian evolution. Design cannot precede evolution and therefore cannot underlie the universe."

[TBC: Nothing is more irrational than a painting without a painter, a building without a builder, or creation without a creator. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools...” (Romans:1:22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
See All...) “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy:4:7I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
See All...).]