Dawkins: Hi, How are you doing?
Yahya: I am good. What about you?
Dawkins: I am good too. I am pleased to meet you at this seminar. I have read quite a lot of your writings, although they have not convinced me at all. That’s why I wanted to have a dialogue with you on the topic of evolution.
Yahya: Yeah, I have heard about you as well. I am very glad that I met you here. I read that evolutionists believe that life was created by chance.
Dawkins: Yes. We do.
Yahya: Laboratory experiments and probabilistic calculations have definitely made it clear that the proteins from which life arises could not have been formed by chance.
Dawkins: I can see what you are getting at. Please go ahead.
Yahya: There are twenty different amino acids. If we consider that an average-sized protein molecule is composed of 288 amino acids, there are 10 300 different combinations of acids. Of all of these possible sequences, only "one" forms the desired protein molecule. The other amino-acid chains are either completely useless or else potentially harmful to living things. In other words, the probability of the coincidental formation of only one protein molecule cited above is "1 in 10 300 ". The probability of this "1" occurring out of an "astronomical" number consisting of 1 followed by 300 zeros is for all practical purposes zero; it is impossible.
Dawkins: This approach to a definition of complexity is promising my friend, but something more is still needed. There are billions of ways of throwing together the bits of Mont Blanc, it might be said, and only one of them is Mont Blanc. So what is it that makes the humans complicated, if Mont Blanc is simple?
Yahya: I don’t understand what you are saying. Could you explain it more?
Dawkins: If you consider all possible ways in which rocks have been put together at Mont Blanc, it can be seen that only one will make Mont Blanc. Any chunk of large rocks could have been labeled a mountain or Mont Blanc. The problem lies with our hindsight. We know that it is Mont Blanc because of our hindsight. We cannot believe that an airliner can be made out of scattered parts by itself, because odds are against it in large numbers. Our hindsight tells us that some company must have made this plane because it cannot make itself.
Yahya: Even if we put aside the chances of the creation of life, another hindrance in proving evolution theory is that you have not been able to find any fossils, which belong to the species, which was neither a human being nor an ape. Although there have been claims like that of Piltdown Man. But they have been proved wrong again and again.
Dawkins: I knew that you would ask this question. Theo logicians often quote the example of eye and evolutionists argue about its evolution. The fact of the matter is that eyes don’t fossilize. As far as other missing links are concerned, I don’t think much work has been done since Darwin presented his theory of evolution. It will take time, but I am sure at some time we will be able to find the fossils of the missing species between humans and apes.
Yahya: Do you think that everything in life has no creator? Do you say that it has no purpose? If you wake up in the morning and you see the sun from your window, would you say that it is by chance that every day you see sun coming from east? Don’t you think that everything that surrounds us requires the ultimate skill and intelligence on the part of its creator? Lets consider the example of the stapler pin. If you think that its shape and creation was by chance, and its purpose came into existence when people thought about its use, I am afraid that you are terribly wrong. Any logical person will tell you that stapler pin was made for the very purpose of keeping papers together. If it is true for such simple thing as a stapler pin, than how come much more complex creations like human beings are created from chance and have no specific purpose?
Dawkins: I don’t completely disagree with you in this regard. I do believe that life was created by chance. But the natural selection is its planning controller. Natural selection does not plan in advance and it has no purpose in view except for the survival of the fittest. It is the master planner for the human beings and other species present on this earth. It gives us the illusion of there being a master creator and designer behind everything. Lets take the example of bats. They have been able to use radar technology for millions of years. They use this technique to hunt for preys in the night. They hunt in the night because of natural selection. They can’t hunt in the day because in the daylight there are too many animals that are hunting for preys. So they have to opt for hunting in the night. We have used the same technology in radar and sonar. Our experience of technology does impress upon us the need for the purposeful designer behind the sophisticated machinery. In the case of living machinery, it is the natural selection that has made bats to use their voice and ears for traveling in the night. So, the designer is unconscious natural selection.
Yahya: My friend, I guess we both belong from different schools of thought. No matter how much I explain my viewpoint it is not going to make any difference. So, I guess we should end this discussion here.
Dawkins: We agree on one thing eventually. Lets end it here. It was nice spending time with you.
Yahya: May God bless you.
Dawkins: Yeah! I wonder if God is blessed himself or not!!!
