The broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough is a recipient of religious hate mail, he has revealed. Speaking about his new documentary on Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, the 82 year-old said the letters told him “to burn in hell and good riddance”.
Sir David is being targeted, he says, because he does not “give credit” to God for creating the animals and natural systems which his documentaries are famous for examining. Raised by atheist parents, the BBC presenter says that religious belief “never really occurred to him”.
His hate mail usually focuses on “beautiful things like hummingbirds.” But Sir David’s response is simple: “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.”
His documentary, Charles Darwin and the tree of life, is aired on Sunday, 9pm on BBC One. It tracks 200 years of scientific discovery since the birth of Charles Darwin. After more than 50 years’ work in natural history, Sir David concludes: “Now we can trace the ancestry of all animals in the tree of life and demonstrate the truth of Darwin’s basic proposition - all life is related.”
In an interview with the Radio Times, he also attacked the “terrible, terrible” idea that a portion of state schools in the UK teach children that creationism and evolution have equal merit.
It’s like saying that two and two equals four but, if you wish it, it could also be five. This is one of the errors. Evolution is not a theory. It is a fact, every bit as much as the historical fact that William the Conqueror landed in 1066. Indeed, more so, because all we have to tell us about William are a few bits of paper here or there - not very much at all. For evolution we have much more evidence: palaeontology, embryology, biology, geology.
Loud applause. But Sir David’s hate mail could be a lot worse. This video shows Richard Dawkins reading some of his. The rudest? “Ha ha you f****** dumbass, I hope you get hit by a church van tonight and you die slowly.” Dawkins can’t help chuckling. I wonder - did Charles Darwin have to suffer snotty letters from Victorian church-goers?
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8 responses
This is an absolute disgrace, and only goes to reinforce the blinkered, ignorant and uncompromising image of the fundies. Sir Attenborough has always carried himself with a quiet dignity that a large portion of religious adherents could learn from.
Not surprising. It’s the same with 9/11 “truthers”, holocaust deniers, or any other deranged cult existing free of reason and evidence. Since they don’t have reason or evidence on their side, all they can do is make vicious, petty attacks.
There is another theory to Darwinism & Creationism.
The Rise & Fall of Atlantis by J.S, Gordon is an excellent read.
Our pre history has been made from theories and assumptions generated in the past 200 years. Further scientific and arcealogical examination needs to be done before we can truly say where we came from.
http://freeyourmind-hiddentruths.blogspot.com
All Sir David is doing is helping people - with his contagious, genuine enthusiasm - appreciate the beauty of this wonderful planet and life forms inhabiting it (with the exception of often ugly homo sapiens)
These people are disgusting. And hypocritical. Are the calling for ‘Made by God’ credits for ugly things? No, nature is on her own there! Picture the Creationist Auction. Volcanic eruptions that wipe out entire civilisations anyone? No takers on those eyeball-burrowing worms in living human hosts? Surely the adorable features of Naked Mole-Rat? Nope, just the Beautiful Things Lot please.
Well, these (hopefully) few fundamentalist have been a bit remiss in their Bible reading:
‘Judge not, lest you be judged. For with what judgement you judge, you shall also be judged’.
‘Love thine enemies’
‘For insofar as you did not do it (loving your neighbour) to the least of your brethren, you did not do it unto me’.
‘Prostitutes and tax-collectors shall enter the kingdom of heaven before you’.
‘Father, forgive them’
I should hope most Christians are more gracious.
Sending anyone hate-mail couldn’t be right but unfortunately the whole debate with respect to Darwinist theory is so prejudiced and unscientific that frustration is inevitable. Firstly, Darwinism is a theory, not a scientific fact, insofar that it is not proven, it is speculative and based on very poor science. If someone was to tell you that,’first there was nothing and then nothing exploded, causing the molecular origin for our life systems’ what would you think? Well that basically is the outline of The Big Bang Theory. Honestly it makes the literal story of Adam and Eve sound like an established fact of euclid.
Likewise with Darwinism, it defies all the established research in science from the second law of thermodynamics to the more cutting edge of recent research in geology and pure mathematics. Yet we have fanatics forcing their opinions down out throats and never do we hear the other side of the argument; by that I don’t mean people not schooled in science who are expressing religious views but actual sciencists who are not deluded by bad science. No wonder ordinary people are frustrated …
Most esteemed scienists who are not signed up to the social creed of Darwinism (it is a belief system remember, based on highly contested aspects of science, and not an established scientific formula) concur that with respect to the nature of the origin of time and matter all is speculation. Yet these voices are silenced and all we hear are Darwinist theorists as the voices of reason and science whereas in truth they are the voices of a minority with a prejudiced and unproven perspective.
Maybe if some truth and a balanced debatewere offered people wouldn’t get so frustrated and wouldn’t feel the only way they could express themselves is by emotional letters.
onwards to truth and enlightenment
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH, HAS GIVEN US GREAT ” TV” , BRINGING ALL THE ” WONDER’S” OF THE WORLD STRAIGHT TO OUR HOME’S WHAT A FANTASTIC WAY TO SEE THE WORLD WE LIVE IN. THANK YOU AND WELL DONE TO ” SIR DAVID.
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