Actually, I’ve found someone who doesn’t share Harold’s assumption: Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. Crick, like Harold, recognizes that the origin of life seems almost a miracle, given the intricate machinery of the cell and given how quickly life appeared on the earth after the planet’s formation. Crick cannot agree with Harold, Dawkins, and others who blithely posit that some combination of chemicals must have proved the right one. So Crick offers a different theory: space aliens must have brought life to earth from another planet! This theory is seriously put forth in Crick’s book Life Itself.
John Maddox recognizes that science knows little about the relationship between brain circuits and human consciousness. Yet he asserts, An explanation of the mind, like that ofthe brain, must ultimately be an explanation in terms of the way that neurons function. After all, there is nothing else on which to rest an explanation. Nicholas Humphrey goes even further: “Our starting assumption as scientists ought to be that on some level consciousness has to be an illusion.” Most people might find this a remarkable conclusion, but not Humphrey; it is his “starting assumption.”
Writing in The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins admits that there are significant “gaps” in the fossil record. Then his argument takes a strange turn. If we take Darwinian evolution seriously, “The gaps, far from being annoying imperfections or awkward embarrassments, turn out to be exactly what we should positively expect.” In other words, the absence of evidence is itself proof that the theory is correct. This is so bizarre that it makes one wonder what the presence of evidence might do to this theory. Would a complete fossil record without gaps be evidence against Darwinian evolution, as we hear that Dawkins and his fellow biologists “exactly” and “positively” expect that such evidence should not be present?
Dawkins finally puts his cards on the table by saying, “The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity. Even if the evidence did not favor it, it would still be the best theory available.” This is a revealing admission. Steven Pinker makes pretty much the same point: “Because there are no alternatives, we would almost have to accept natural selection as the explanation of life on this planet even if there were no evidence for it.” My point is not to deny that there is good evidence for evolution. There is, but it is not as good as you would be led to believe by the champions of Darwinism. That’s because the champions of Darwinism are completely blind to weaknesses in the theory. They cannot even imagine that it is not true.
