News World news Religion Attenborough reveals creationist hate mail for not crediting God

[mr blur]

Sir David Attenborough has revealed that he receives hate mail from viewers for failing to credit God in his documentaries. In an interview with this week's Radio Times about his latest documentary, on Charles Darwin and natural selection, the broadcaster said: "They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance."

Telling the magazine that he was asked why he did not give "credit" to God, Attenborough added: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. 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."

<snip>

My kind of sceptic

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/27/david-attenborough-science

[moggie]

1. I'd be concerned if he WASN'T getting hate mail

He's done more than almost any other modern science populariser to raise interest in the natural world as it really is, not as fantasists would like it to be: of course the unevolved nutters hate him. The man's a complete hero.

The line about the worm reminds me of Eric Idle's hymn:

All things dull and ugly
All creatures short and squat
All things rude and nasty
The Lord God made the lot

Each little snake that poisons
Each little wasp that stings
He made their brutish venom
He made their horrid wings

All things sick and cancerous
All evil great and small
All things foul and dangerous
The Lord God made them all

Each nasty little hornet
Each beastly little squid
Who made the spikey urchin?
Who made the sharks? He did!

All things scabbed and ulcerous
All pox both great and small
Putrid, foul and gangrenous
The Lord God made them all

[TZ]

2. I love David Attenborough

The Trials of Life w/him is my all time favorite nature documentary!
Kudos to him for being a real scientific type!

[moggie]

3. And he's not just a wildlife documentary maker

Did you ever see Jacob Bronowski's seminal 1973 documentary series The Ascent of Man? Attenborough commissioned that.

[skepticscott]

4. Attenborough was being kind

they probably told him to "bern in hell and godd riddence"

[Evoman]

5. Lol...my Uncle is uber-religous and because I'm the resident evil-utionist, he

always trys to get me into discussions. Usually I humour him...to be honest, he is a pretty intelligent, well-spoken, funny guy who is never rude to me and never lets things get heated. But I sorta get sick of it sometimes.

Last time he made some sort of argument (something along the lines of hummingbirds or rainbows or something stupid like that), I just looked at him and said "God created SMEGMA". After which, everytime he tried to make an argument, I would simply say "SMEGMA!".

After the 3rd or 4th time, he got the hint and left me alone. Everybody thought it was really funny.

I felt kind of like a prick afterwards though. Oh well.

[mr blur]

6. Video interview with the man:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/video/2009/jan/30/david-attenborough-charles-darwin

"Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, presented by Sir David, will be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday 1 February at 9pm GMT"