SIR David Attenborough receives hate mail over his belief in evolution, the British broadcaster and naturalist has revealed.
Sir David is preparing for more letters telling him to "burn in hell" when his latest television show, a documentary on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, is aired in the UK on Monday.
"They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance," Sir David told Radio Times magazine.
The popular 82-year-old said people often asked him why he did not "give credit" in his programs to God for creating the natural world.
"They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds," Sir David said.
"I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in East Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball.
"The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and 150 years since his most famous work, On the Origin of Species, was published.
With many species under threat of extinction, keen conservationist Sir David was worried by the notion that the world was a gift to humans from God.
He also declared it as "terrible, terrible" that some British state schools can teach children that creationism and evolution are equal alternative view points.
"It's like saying that two and two equals four, but if you wish to believe it, it could also be five," Sir David said.
"Darwin revolutionised the way we see the world fundamentally, but his basic proposition is still not taken on board by a lot of people."
However, Sir David acknowledged "it would be a very bold scientist, and certainly not me, who believes it's the be all and end all".
Britain's Australia Day Foundation this week named Sir David Honorary Australian of the Year for his work in highlighting Australia's native plants and animals in his award-winning television documentaries.
(Off-topic :A fundie on another board offcourse claimed it were actually atheists doing it so they can make christians look bad )
That worm is a good example of a terrible species for God to have benevolently designed- IIRC the straw that broke Darwin's belief in a divine creation ex nihilo was a wasp that lays parasitic larva inside a spider, and the larva eat their way out later.
But nobody cares about spiders, whereas African kids is a bit more visceral. Should be filed away in the "What the hell kind of Creator...?" file.
I don't see the belief that the world is a gift from God to Her creations as being pernicious, so long as it's complimented by the belief in the scriptural passage assigning man the duty of acting as a responsible caretaker: "Then the LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to Cultivate it and Guard it" ("to tend and care for it" - The Living Bible2) - Genesis 2:15
If people want to believe woo-woo stuff, okay, but also act with respect to the responsibilities assigned by your woo-woo belief.
I find myself endlessly fascinated by your career - Stark, in a fit of Nerd-Validation, November 3, 2011
"Darwin revolutionised the way we see the world fundamentally, but his basic proposition is still not taken on board by a lot of people
However, Sir David acknowledged "it would be a very bold scientist, and certainly not me, who believes it's the be all and end all".
And right here is the quote that we can all expect smarmy moderates to latch onto in years to come. Of fucking course natural selection isn't the "be all and end all", that's like Ben Stein smugly pointing out that evolution doesn't explain how planets remain in orbit.
It's the classic misinterpretation of what scientists actually do. Even if they're 99.9% right, most scientists won't admit that they can dismiss the final 0.1% they're not sure on yet and proclaim they have 100% truth. Of course people who don't understand the evolutionary and refinement process of science means that the final 0.1% can't invalidate the other 99.9%, only expand or refine it.
This probably has to do with religions proclaiming that they have 100% truth all the time and accepting that if you don't say you have everything you clearly have nothing.
Although I now have the amusing image of Dr. Attenborough and Wong combining their hate mail pages.
I love learning. Teach me. I will listen. You know, if Christian dogma included a ten-foot tall Jesus walking around in battle armor and smashing retarded cultists with a gaint mace, I might just convert - Noble Ire on Jesus smashing Scientologists
The worm example is a good one, I shall have to "borrow" that off Attenborough and I eagerly await this programme (though I'm pretty sure it airs on Sunday at 2100 GMT).
It's depressing that even in the UK, such a respected naturalist who has only shown the supposed wonders of God's creation, can still be reviled for buying into that most heinous of notions: the belief that we weren't engineered for some higher purpose by some sky pixie.
I hope Dawkins notices this too. I would sorely love to see how an international holiday on the 12th February would go down.
Admiral Valdemar wrote:The worm example is a good one, I shall have to "borrow" that off Attenborough
Sigged in my case. It's such a poweful image of how cruel and uncaring the natural world is, that I couldn't pass it up. Makes me feel sorry for the poor worm whose only sustenance is eyeballs.
As for those Cretinists wishing for him to burn in hell, aren't they breaking some Christian moral code by wishing ill upon others? These types always exhale vast amounts of hypocrisy.
MRDOD wrote:That worm is a good example of a terrible species for God to have benevolently designed
Nah, things like that are caused by the sin of man, not God. Or so a fundie once told me.
Yeah, that's a very common idea. But I've read a fair bit of genesis, and I don't seem to recall a clause in God's punishement saying "thorns and claws and viruses and tusks".
"I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in East Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball.
"The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."
Gah!!!
Some species need to go extinct!
I thought Roman candles meant they were imported. - Kelly Bundy
12 yards long, two lanes wide it's 65 tons of American pride, Canyonero! - Simpsons
Support the KKK environmental program - keep the Arctic white!
I didn't catch it for various reasons, but there's a brief extract and an interview with the man himself on The BBC Science Editor's Blog
Personal favourite: "I've had a few letters, people who are obviously cranks, irrational, not worth taking notice of."
According to wikipedia, "the Mohorovičić discontinuity is the boundary between the Earth's crust and the mantle."
According to Starbound, it's a problem solvable with enough combat drugs to turn you into the Incredible Hulk.
EBC|Fucking Metal|Artist|Androgynous Sexfiend|Gozer Kvltist|
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth "America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
A Government founded upon justice, and recognizing the equal rights of all men; claiming higher authority for existence, or sanction for its laws, that nature, reason, and the regularly ascertained will of the people; steadily refusing to put its sword and purse in the service of any religious creed or family is a standing offense to most of the Governments of the world, and to some narrow and bigoted people among ourselves.
I liked it, though I thought this was going to be a series. Still, it had a great Layman's introduction to Darwin's life, the basic workings of the theory, the struggle he had getting a theocratic world to accept it, and how important such a theory has been to every human being alive.
I shall be going to the Natural History Museum sometime soon to see Darwin's statue in the main hall, where it rightfully belongs.
Admiral Valdemar wrote:I liked it, though I thought this was going to be a series. Still, it had a great Layman's introduction to Darwin's life, the basic workings of the theory, the struggle he had getting a theocratic world to accept it, and how important such a theory has been to every human being alive.
I shall be going to the Natural History Museum sometime soon to see Darwin's statue in the main hall, where it rightfully belongs.
It is a series, well, something like that. There was another program on this the weekend before last, presented by Armand Marie Leroi, called "What Darwin Didn't Know." I wouldn't be surprised if there's another one next week.
EBC|Fucking Metal|Artist|Androgynous Sexfiend|Gozer Kvltist|
Listen to my music! http://www.soundclick.com/nihilanth "America is, now, the most powerful and economically prosperous nation in the country." - Master of Ossus
I recorded it and found the time to see it last night. They've squized quite a lot of information in it and even took the time to refute some classic creationist arguments. A good recommendation for every layman I'd say.
The animation of the tree of life at the end was nice too.
Anyone who bashes Attenborough is a weasel-dicked asshole. I grew up on his documentaries. When I was a kid I used to pretend to be him doing a wildlife documentary on animals in my neighborhood. I would also try to imitate his voice (though I sounded more like James Mason when I did). I learned more about the world in one hour of his shows on PBS than anyone ever learned from "holy" books. Fuck these fundies!
wautd wrote:I recorded it and found the time to see it last night. They've squized quite a lot of information in it and even took the time to refute some classic creationist arguments. A good recommendation for every layman I'd say.
The animation of the tree of life at the end was nice too.
Yeah, I'd like to get something like that as a screensaver. Must send off for one of those posters though.
)
Excellently done there. I wonder how many of the idiots it's aimed at will get the referrence?
