Does Dawkins Knows What He Says?

Question

Just check this and find out what I mean. He says that everything that looks to be a design has a designer, he says earth loot to be a design...... just look http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/the_god_delusion4.html

Read the whole thing and you will see.

"Premise #1. Every existing entity that shows evidence of design requires a designer superior to itself"

Answer 1

God doesn't much care about human logic, and belief in Him is not a matter of pure logic, but of faith, wisdom, and experience. There is logic to belief in Him, but it is found in wisdom, not in intellect. "God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." If the man's argument held any real significance, then nothing in the world or science would ever be illogical, and we know for a fact that some things are.

Answer 2

Dawkins didn't say that "everything that looks designed needs a designer". On the contrary, he maintains that nature displays an ILLUSION of design.

This so-called "Premise #1. Every existing entity that shows evidence of design requires a designer superior to itself" is contrary to Dawkins' opinion... anyone who claims otherwise has either not read "The God Delusion" or is lying.

The "everything that looks designed needs a designer" argument comes from creationists. Dawkins just follows their logic to the end: Surely a being capable of creating the universe with all its complexity must be at least as complex as the universe... therefore it must have been designed.

Answer 3

The author admits he is extrapolating from Dawkins' arguments. He actually says Dawkins said none of those things. So effectively, he has taken control of Dawkins' argument, manipulating it to serve his own ends. His "Dawkins" borrows "Premise #1" only for purposes of constructing the argument, not because he believes it true.

So how does he do with this non-Dawkins Dawkins? He manages to show that Dawkins' reversal of the complexity argument is as unsupported as the ID version. In other words, no one has a leg to stand on, including ID. We're right back to: "Well how did the Big Bang get started?" "Well how did God get started?"

Insofar as it actually might be Dawkins' argument, it's just a reclothing of the uncaused cause paradox (just like ID is a reclothing of creationism). But the refutation does nothing to address the original question. The writer proves nothing.

Answer 4

Dawkins is an intense intellectual but "The God Delusion" was written for mass public consumption. Anyone can pick away at any tiny piece of the book hoping to bring down the entire horse.

Watch the BBC series "The Root of All Evil?" for a well-rounded dose of Dawkins. I urge anyone who wants to critique Dawkins, especially his books, to actually read the entire work (book, essay, etc) in question first.

If someone criticized the bible you would certainly expect them to actually know and understand the contents first. We should hold all analysis to an equal standard.

Good Luck :)

Answer 5

Maybe I'm missing something here, but if you are rejecting the Christian premise that everything requires a designer, doesn't that throw your whole argument for Intelligent Design out the window?

Answer 6

Uh, you need to read more carefully.

Dawkins is giving a theist argument in order to refute it.

He does NOT believe that the Earth was designed.

If you want to understand what he's saying, you should read what he wrote, not exerpts on a site that's trying to debunk him.

I have his book right here, and he does NOT argue for the existence of god.

Answer 7

Don't be an idiot.

Dawkins explains the arguments used for creationism, and then goes on to show why they are fallacious.


IF everything complex must have a designer, THEN a complex god must have a designer too.


So,
are you just a bit thick?
Or,
do you enjoy lying for Jesus?

Answer 8

There are good rebuttals to Dawkins book.

That page isn't one of them.

I read the page, pretty quickly, and although I'm seldom one to make ad hominid attacks, the author of the page is, very much, logically illiterate.

Answer 9

( Does you knows what you writes? )
YES, Dawkins absolutely does! ... The Universe is incredibly complex and wonderful ... Negating all the 'Gods' does not make it at all LESS Spectacular or LESS Wonderful.

"We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further." -- Richard Dawkins

Answer 10

Err, you need to go read that again Scooter. Most of that (including what you quoted) isn't Dawkins talking.