Extraterrestrial Origins Of Life on Earth

You're probably thinking of the segment of "Expelled" where Dawkins discusses the possibility of extra-terrestrial origins as a hypothetical. It's speculation, but nothing that Dawkins takes seriously as a real possibility.

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Toward the end of his interview with me, Stein asked whether I could think of any circumstances whatsoever under which intelligent design might have occurred. It's the kind of challenge I relish, and I set myself the task of imagining the most plausible scenario I could. I wanted to give ID its best shot, however poor that best shot might be. I must have been feeling magnanimous that day, because I was aware that the leading advocates of Intelligent Design are very fond of protesting that they are not talking about God as the designer, but about some unnamed and unspecified intelligence, which might even be an alien from another planet. Indeed, this is the only way they differentiate themselves from fundamentalist creationists, and they do it only when they need to, in order to weasel their way around church/state separation laws. So, bending over backwards to accommodate the IDiots ("oh NOOOOO, of course we aren't talking about God, this is SCIENCE") and bending over backwards to make the best case I could for intelligent design, I constructed a science fiction scenario

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From here Page not found | Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and ScienceI don't think he gives any credence to the idea and Ben Stein and co. are not being particularly honest in presenting the clip as such.Edited by Granny Magda, : Added link to quote source.

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Mutate and Survive

Quite honestly I forget which clips from Expelled I have or haven't seen. It makes no difference though. Who is the better judge of what Richard Dawkins thinks about directed panspermia? Me? You? Ben Stein? Could it possibly be Richard Dawkins?Which source is best placed to offer a clear view of Dawkins' opinion? Expelled, which seeks to ridicule Dawkins or dawkins.net which is completely under Dawkins' editorial control?It seems absurd to suggest that Dawkins is using his own website to promote opinions to which he does not adhere, only to let his real feelings slip out in some interview. Why can't you just take the man's word that he believes what he believes?Dawkins doesn't believe that life came from space, as anyone who has read his books will be aware. He was discussing a hypothetical scenario, which he considers to be vanishingly improbable, but still more likely than creation by a supernatural entity, since it can still be explained by reference to natural processes ( the aliens themselves must have evolved). When he brings up this kind of argument it is invariably for the purpose of making the "who designed the designer" point, not as a serious suggestion in its own right.Taking this, as I believe Stein does, to mean that "Richard Dawkins believes in aliens" is a dishonest misrepresentation of Dawkins' views.

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Mutate and Survive