Dawkins pal Jerry Coyne has noticed the ID Community’s reb, and in “Moshe Averick: another creationist rabbi”, he makes clear what he thinks of clergy who have actually noticed the unseen world:
Perhaps I was wrong to assume that rabbis have higher respect for science, and less tolerance for theological bullshit, than do Christian preachers or Muslim imams.
Let us take it as a given that no rabbi, whatever his learning, can have a high respect for truth if something he says displeases Jerry Coyne. That’s just the way the universe is. Having pointed out that our “maverick” is nobody’s fool (used to trade on the Chicago Exchange floor), Coyne invites his trolls to go after Averick’s comment about the origin of life, in defense of Rabbi Jacobs’ recent Huffpo op-ed, “A Reasonable Argument for God’s Existence”:
Rabbi Jacobs did not take Francis Crick’s statement out of context. Crick was being totally candid when he said that it looks like life is a miracle. His caveat afterward is only a reflection on his own illogical and unreasonable committment to atheism. Just because Crick did not have the intellectual integrity to follow his very true assessment of the evidence to its logical conclusion is his problem, not mine.
If someone was thrown out of a Las Vegas Casino for winning 100 hands of black jack in a row and then pleaded, “I know it seems miraculous that I won so many times by luck, but it’s not IMPOSSIBLE” we would laugh as such a ridiculous argument. This is exactly what Crick does. He admits that a naturalistic emergence of life is “miraculous”, but then quickly adds, “but it’s not impossible.”
About that guy’s “lucky streak”: It may not be “impossible.” Depends how you define “impossible”: In this or any other universe, whether actual or imaginable? Basically, that guy is thrown out because the house can’t meet the payroll if he stays, nor could any casino. So on Earth, “impossible” is restricted to statements about factual reality.
Coyne also informs us,
I remain a cultural Jew, but now my pastrami sandwich (see post above) is salted with my tears.
Aw come on, Jerry. We all know that you and your trolls get off on this sort of thing.
PS: Here’s an interview with the reb.