'Stroke of luck' led to life on Earth

DON SCOTT/The Press

POPULAR FIGURE: A large crowd turned out at the Christchurch Town Hall last night to hear noted author, biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins.

DON SCOTT/The Press

SCIENCE H LOGIC: Richard Dawkins says natural selection is the great engine of the predictable side of life.

DON SCOTT/The Press

ANOTHER VIEWPOINT: A Christian group offers a contrary view outside the venue.

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"It's an astonishing stroke of luck that we are here."

That was the evolutionary message of author, biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins to a packed auditorium at the Christchurch Town Hall last night.

However, it seemed shared by most of the capacity 2500 audience, who ensured Dawkins lived up to his billing as the "rock star of neo-atheism" as they cheered him on to the stage and gave him a standing ovation.

A ticket to the sold-out event was snapped up on Trade Me yesterday for $132, and others turned up to The Press Literary Liaison event looking for tickets.

Dawkins, who is promoting his evolution-affirming book The Greatest Show on Earth, talked about the stroke of luck that life developed on Earth and that we came to be.

"Every animal owes its existence to an astonishing list of contingencies that might not have happened," he said.

"With so much chance and luck it might be thought that evolution itself is a process of pure chance, but nothing could be further from the truth."

It was predictable, for example, that eyes and ears would develop in different species, and they had done so independently several times over, Dawkins said.

"Natural selection is the great engine of the predictable side of life, but it cannot start without certain prerequisites."

He said it was his gut feeling that there been another stroke of luck that would have developed life elsewhere in the universe.

"There are billions and billions of planets out there, so there could be millions of planets that have life on them, but the origin of life could still be a staggeringly good stroke of luck," he said.

Dawkins said that a sense of gratitude had developed as an essential part of human societies. This meant humans had an overwhelming desire to give thanks, even when there was no-one to give thanks to and this, in part, had given rise to religion.

Natural selection may also have favoured those children who believed what their parents told them, which could also favour the religiously inclined.

Dawkins was presented with a banana at the end of the show by Press editor Andrew Holden in recognition of Christchurch-born evangelist Ray Comfort's YouTube video explaining God's design by the perfection of a banana.

- © Fairfax NZ News