full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Richard Dawkins: Militant atheism

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Now, the difficult problem for any theory of biological design is to explain the massive statistical improbability of linvig things. stctstaiail improbability in the direction of good design — "complexity" is another word for this. The standard creationist argument — there is only one; they're all reduced to this one — takes off from a statistical improbability. Living creatures are too complex to have come about by chance; therefore, they must have had a designer. This argument of course, stoohs itself in the foot. Any designer capable of dsgenniig something really complex has to be even more coeplmx himself, and that's before we even start on the other things he's expected to do, like forgive sins, bless marriages, lstein to pryraes — favor our side in a war —

Open Cloze

Now, the difficult problem for any theory of biological design is to explain the massive statistical improbability of ______ things. ___________ improbability in the direction of good design — "complexity" is another word for this. The standard creationist argument — there is only one; they're all reduced to this one — takes off from a statistical improbability. Living creatures are too complex to have come about by chance; therefore, they must have had a designer. This argument of course, ______ itself in the foot. Any designer capable of _________ something really complex has to be even more _______ himself, and that's before we even start on the other things he's expected to do, like forgive sins, bless marriages, ______ to _______ — favor our side in a war —

Solution

  1. complex
  2. shoots
  3. designing
  4. living
  5. listen
  6. statistical
  7. prayers

Original Text

Now, the difficult problem for any theory of biological design is to explain the massive statistical improbability of living things. Statistical improbability in the direction of good design — "complexity" is another word for this. The standard creationist argument — there is only one; they're all reduced to this one — takes off from a statistical improbability. Living creatures are too complex to have come about by chance; therefore, they must have had a designer. This argument of course, shoots itself in the foot. Any designer capable of designing something really complex has to be even more complex himself, and that's before we even start on the other things he's expected to do, like forgive sins, bless marriages, listen to prayers — favor our side in a war —

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
asteroid killed 5
statistical improbability 3
natural selection 2
court cases 2
evolution lobby 2
attacking creationism 2
american atheists 2
jewish vote 2
american electorate 2
critical mass 2
stumbling block 2
edward aveling 2
tooth fairies 2

Important Words

  1. argument
  2. biological
  3. bless
  4. capable
  5. complex
  6. creationist
  7. creatures
  8. design
  9. designer
  10. designing
  11. difficult
  12. direction
  13. expected
  14. explain
  15. favor
  16. foot
  17. forgive
  18. good
  19. improbability
  20. listen
  21. living
  22. marriages
  23. massive
  24. prayers
  25. problem
  26. reduced
  27. shoots
  28. side
  29. sins
  30. standard
  31. start
  32. statistical
  33. takes
  34. theory
  35. war
  36. word