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Dawkins’s 66th birthday — Hey, what about my birthday greeting?

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For whatever reason, the people at richarddawkins.net put me on their mailing list and sent me an invitation some time back to write a birthday greeting for Richard Dawkins, who celebrates his 66th birthday today. Go to richarddawkins.net/happybirthdayRD, and you’ll find birthday greetings from Dan Dennett, Sam Harris, P.Z. Myers, Michael Shermer, etc. But my birthday greeting is nowhere to be found. Here’s the panegyric I sent in a few weeks back (yes, I’ve posted it at UD before; note that I cribbed from Harry Jaffa, Daniel Dennett, and Barbara Kingsolver). I figure just in case the ID thing doesn’t work out, I’ll have a backup . . . .

There are rare times and places, in the illustrious history of science, when outbursts of genius supply human civilization with the supreme wonders of human greatness. It is the contemplation of these that raises the mass of humanity to levels not unworthy of what, in less enlightened ages, we would have regarded as the divine image and which we now, rightly, regard as the pinnacle of evolutionary development. Such moments of supreme scientific achievement are to be found in the works of Archimedes, Copernicus, Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein. However, never before–or since–has scientific genius burst in such profusion on the human scene as in the 19th century when Charles Darwin propounded his theory of evolution and taught the creatures of evolution to understand that they are products of evolution. If an award were to be given for the single best idea anyone ever had, it would go to Darwin, ahead of everyone else. In a single stroke, the idea of evolution by natural selection unifies the realm of life, meaning, and purpose with the realm of space and time, cause and effect, mechanism and physical law. Natural selection is the greatest, simplest, most elegant logical construct ever to dawn across our curiosity about the workings of natural life. It is inarguable, and it explains everything. Every human good that we enjoy today is, directly or indirectly, a legacy from what Charles Darwin wrought and what Richard Dawkins has preserved. –WmAD

And if you believe this, there’s some real estate I’d like to sell you.

Comments
"May I suggest, as a birthday gift to Dawkins, a direct, illustrated, and annotated demonstration of the application of the concept of complex specified information to a biological example?" In return for a detailed, illustrated and annotated description of a possible Darwinian pathway for the bacterial flagellum?russ
March 27, 2007
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A bunch of Darwinists are keen to point this out: http://richarddawkins.net/bday1message.php?id=310 I figured I'd post it minus the usual insults.Patrick
March 27, 2007
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May I suggest, as a birthday gift to Dawkins, a direct, illustrated, and annotated demonstration of the application of the concept of complex specified information to a biological example?jaredl
March 27, 2007
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Since the Darwinian worldview tells us there's absolutely nothing worse than death, a birthday greeting is simply a reminder that one is but another year closer to the end of his existence. On the other hand, I can see no reason why we can't wish Dr. Dawkins a happy birthday, because if the realization that he is another year closer to the grave doesn't kill him, it will only make him stronger. What to do, what to do?TerryL
March 27, 2007
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When is your birthday Dr. Dembski? If you tell us, we'll go out of our way to celebrate. I'll even compose a website of some sort just for yours truly, assuming your birthday isn't really soon (I do need time of course). In any case, Happy Birthday (whenever it is).Apoptosis
March 26, 2007
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You should have held on to this post until April 1.kevinstilley
March 26, 2007
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Why would anyone want to celebrate the birthday of a collection of cosmic flotsam with no objective meaning or purpose? Because you should love your neighbor as yourself.rrf
March 26, 2007
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Why would anyone want to celebrate the birthday of a collection of cosmic flotsam with no objective meaning or purpose?mike1962
March 26, 2007
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March is quite the birthday month for popular atheists... Dawkins, PZ Myer, and Kristine the Shimmie expert. In fact, Kristine and I are both 42 and our birthdays are just a couple weeks apart. I'm a March baby as well. Oh, btw Bill, you really should go wish Kristine a happy birthday. She seems to have a wee bit of a crush on you!Forthekids
March 26, 2007
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[...] From UD (from Dawkins.net): However, never before–or since–has scientific genius burst in such profusion on the human scene as in the 19th century when Charles Darwin propounded his theory of evolution and taught the creatures of evolution to understand that they are products of evolution. [...]Darwiniana » Darwin, genius or cheat?
March 26, 2007
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"But my birthday greeting is nowhere to be found." There is no profanity in your panegyric so it's unfit to print on an anti-ID blog.russ
March 26, 2007
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Amazing, perhaps, but clearly having a selective advantage: admired people tend to attract more mates.William Dembski
March 26, 2007
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Looks like the Mutual Admiration Society. Amazing how evolved masses of protoplasm can admire each other.Jared White
March 26, 2007
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