Quote:
Originally Posted by msmith
In the following interview, Dawkins categorically admits that no one knows how life began, including evolutionary biologists. He has absolutely no answers when it comes to a First Cause of life.
It shows, I think, that most of the vitriol he spews has much more to do with his own anti-religious bias and opinion rather than actual research and application of the scientific method.
He goes on to say that life on Earth could have begun by the seeding of a "higher intelligence" or "intelligent design". Noting the fact Dawkins does not believe in God, this seems to imply that he may believe in aliens and/or spacemen. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlZtEjtlirc |
A statement about the remote past cannot be 100% verified. (We can't go back in time to confirm the hypothesis.) However, some hypotheses can be shown to be better founded than others. Dawkins's caution is entirely consistent with scientific method and shows (to my mind) a refreshing humility and intellectual honesty. No one on Earth does
know how life began.
Incidentally, the Panspermia hypothesis has been held by quite repectable scientists (e.g. Chandra Wickramasinghe - see here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandra_Wickramasinghe)
and doesn't actually imply anything much as regards the origin of life as a whole. If life on Earth actually developed as a result of organic matter brought in from meterorites then it just pushes the question of the ultimate origins back a step or two.