Dawkins on the Genius of Darwin (Part III)

Finally this three part series has come to an end although I have to admit I did enjoy watching it for another insight into Darwinism and those who argue for the theory of evolution.
Dawkins had quite a few interesting confrontations with different professionals in this episode including an archbishop and a science teacher as I remember.
Talking to a board of teachers he encouraged the teaching of evolution in such as way as to persuade students from even their own religious beliefs but the teachers argued that the religious beliefs of the students had to be respected, evolution could be presented but students would have to make up their own minds.
Dawkins argued for a great deal of evidence for evolution whereas those who believe in intelligent design argue the opposite - that there is very little hard evidence for evolution, if any.

Most memorable quote - from his philosopher friend who nearly died and was prayed for by friends of his - he replied 'thankyou (for praying for me) and did you sacrifice a goat?'

Dawkins on Evolution (Part 2)

Channel 4 aired the 2nd part of DawkinsTV programme discussing 'The genius of Darwin'
This programme focussed on the implications of Darwinism and how that can affect us in society.
Social Darwininsm was touched on towards the end of the programme - clearly a negative way of running society.
Dawkins praised the human ability to be altruistic/unselfish discussing our ability as humans to go beyond what is seen in the animal kingdom by being especially unselfish through giving to charity, giving blood and providing shelter and food for the homeless. In fact he admitted to being puzzled by this - something he has been trying to fathom for many years; behaviour which he seeks to justify and explain in terms of evolution.
One particularly amusing scene for me was when he confronted a Kenyan church leader with the words 'I'm an ape .... are you?' to which the man replied 'No, I'm made in the image of God'

While Richard Dawkins discussed his pride at being an advanced ape I couldn't help thinking that this Kenyan church leader had more reason for dignity and a healthy self image by viewing himself as a person separate from the animal kingdom and made in the image of God.

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins new TV programme was recently aired on channel 4 discussing the 'genius of Charles Darwin'
Having watched the programme here are a few questions I'd like to raise among thinking people...
Dawkins in typical manner was pretty scathing of so called 'indoctrinated' students who had religious belief but shouldn't he be respecting other people's beliefs even though they do not fit with his own?
He describes fossils as evidence of evolution so isn't it peculiar that fossils today can be produced through the sudden application of great pressure hence the imprint which is a fossil - described in simple terms of course. A worldwide flood could produce fossils and would fit the data well considering the great number of animal fossils often thrown together...
The reason the huge geological timescale is believed which he describes is to allow for evolution to take place one miniscule change at a time, darwin never imagined such a vast timescale as is now believed and can this supposed age of the earth be conclusively proved beyond doubt?

Dawkins never went into any detail regarding evolutionary changes which is typical of evolution theory; at a molecular level evolution has never been explained in detail and Dawkins himself admits in the programme that evolution has never been observed - how convenient.

Check out Dr Michael Behe's book titled 'Darwins Black Box - the biochemical challenge to evolution' - this in itself is a pretty conclusive rebuttal to (macro) evolution but I will let you (the reader) do your own research on this.

Now I do believe in Natural Selection which has been proven to some extent I believe but no-one has ever witnessed one species become another species e.g an ape become a primitive man
nor does the fossil record support this ..how can dawkins explain a fossil record that documents distinct species - most unchanged for millions of years (except that creatures were generally larger at that time) but the fossils do not show intermediate species/ species that were changing at the time...

Finally the programme ends with the human genome project - apparently the fact that DNA between certain species is similar is conclusive proof of a common ancestor but whereas I understand the point being made - to suggest this as the end of the arguement without further discussion or examination in detail seems ludicrous...

So each creature has its own code an incredibly complex system made to appear simple on the programme just because it is made up of 4 base letters, well look at what we have created with the binary system and that is just 2 letters/digits......now if it takes a human intelligence to create a computer and computer programmes based on a code then how much greater the intelligence that creates the code for every living creature and plant on this planet - designed in such a way that we can reproduce and not just reproduce clones but always the newborn baby or animal is different in some way to its parents these variations do enable natural selection but macro evolution please be serious.......

Hope

Todays preach at church was about HOPE; a simple 4 letter word that makes all the difference.Everyone in this world puts their hope in something: maybe winning the lottery or looking forward to their next holiday, but how certain is a hope like that?

In fact there exists a wide spread 'hopelessness' among the general public, people look at the state of the world and (no wonder) they lose hope - all the murders, stabbings in London, rapes, wars, climate change, fear of recession here in the UK.

But those who are Christians have a message of Hope and a real hope in their hearts, we aren't looking to prime ministers or presidents or scientists to solve our problems though we are sure they can help - our hope isn't in this life at all. We have a hope that goes beyond that grave so that to die is in fact gain.
I don't have to wonder if there is an afterlife or what will happen to me when I die?I don't have to keep trying to do good in this life with the hope that if somehow I do enough good then that will somehow cancel out my wrongdoings and earn me a place in heaven ( last weeks preach)

No I can in fact be completely confident that because of Jesus who took my sins in His body on the cross I have an eternal home in heaven - an inheritance that waits for me which cannot spoil, perish or fade...This should be evident in the way I life my life, evident in my attitude towards life and death, towards global crises and possible crises within my personal life - all of this can never take away my hope..