“In the documentary Expelled,”
You mis-spelled “propaganda piece”
“…There is no absurdity Dawkins is not prepared to embrace so long as he can avoid a transcendental inference.”
Dawkins was asked whether any form of ID could be scientific. He gave one, directed panspermia. It would be possible to look for evidence of past alien visitation to our planet. It would be possible to look for supporting evidence for this scenario in the fossil record and in our genes. That Dawkins is willing to consider such scenarios could hardly be considered “embracement,” at least by anyone who is perceptive and honest. Dawkins does not consider this proposition to be likely or well-evidenced, only testable. In that way it is unlike the “God did it” proposition that Stein favors. You may ask yourself then, does Berlinski lack perceptiveness or honesty? I consider the question to be unproductive.
The propaganda piece Expelled tries to make two contrary arguments at once:
1) That Intelligent Design is scientific, not religious, and
2) That ID is religious and opposition to it constitutes religious repression.
It does not help their quest for the first point that they openly and unintelligently mock all scientific ideas for the origin of life that are presented in the movie.
