Creationists tell Sir David Attenborough to 'burn in hell'

[Candlelight]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4831726a1860.html

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 Sunday.
"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 programmes 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.

They teach Creationism in British schools? I never knew.

I guess it comes in waves. Maybe because he's so high profile? I hardly hear Creationalists making a fuss about such shows these days.

[Please keep this thread civil, or Mods can close]

 

[trekkerguy]

Off topic: Cool avatar

On topic: Poor guy, this is just ridiculous.

 

[cultcross]

Yeh, saw this in the TNZ thread. It's a crying shame. David Attenborough is a British institution in the truest sense, and basically invented the nature documentary as it exists today, in his early career work with the BBC.
To have people writing hate mail because he uses science in his science programmes is ludicrous in the extreme.

And creationism was taught in no British school I attended outside the RE class. I suspect that is either an extremely limited occurrence or completely fictional. The parents would be up in arms, if the pupils weren't first.

 

[aftermath]

Why are some religious nut heads so insecure about their faith? I pity them really, wasting all that time in the name of what amounts to fairy tales.

 

[Plecostomus]

Consider it a dying gasp for attention. The Creationists are of course entitled to their opinions for sure... but seeming how the absurd push to have Creationism replace Science in schools created a nice big anti-religion backlash... their day in the sun is over.

I for one firmly believe that God is an Engineer and He likes to tinker with His creation, and Science represents the methods and tools he used. Evolution is just one tool in His toolbox. Dinosaurs represent something He got board with before creating mankind.

He works over a cosmic time-frame... and it's not easy to comprehend even for a learned fellow such as I... so stories of The Creation were created to get the basic gist across.

*shrug* I for one wish the EITHER/OR crowd would stuff it. There is plenty of room for both opinions as well as a moderate view...

 

[SPOCKED]

I've always wanted to meet Sir David Attenborough.. shake his hand, look him square in the eye and thank him for his great body of work (so much of which fills my bookcases)




and those jackasses can go fuck themselves.

 

[cultcross]

I've always wanted to meet Sir David Attenborough.. shake his hand, look him square in the eye and thank him for his great body of work (so much of which fills my bookcases)

I got to do that actually; he attended the same performance I did at the NT in London once. Obviously he had a nice box rather than my shitty stall seat but I made a point of installing myself in his exit route. Despite being accosted by a nerdy guy wanting to shake his hand, he was the definition of a gentleman, and seemed genuinely humbled by my comments.
Of the (granted fairly short) list of celebrities I've met, he ranks the highest.

Bizarrely Farscape's Virginia Hey ranks second, she was the most genuine, friendly woman... annnnyway back to the topic, Robin!

 

[Ashu]

Now, I'm not a creationist or anything, but what are the british schools supposed to do? Pretend it doesn't exist? Now that would REALLY piss Creationists off.

Off topic, I know, but I'm surprised you were surprised.

Now, on topic: Holy moses, these creationists (not all creationists, just the ones in question) need to grow up and get over themselves.

 

[cultcross]

Now, I'm not a creationist or anything, but what are the british schools supposed to do? Pretend it doesn't exist? Now that would REALLY piss Creationists off.

The problem is not teaching that it exists - it's teaching it (or 'Intelligent Design' which is actually the same thing) in science lessons as a valid alternative theory.

 

[Ashu]

To some people it is though. Now, I don't agree that it is valid, and Im more prone to agree with you, but if you leave one out someone is going to get pissed.

 

[cultcross]

To some people it is though. Now, I don't agree that it is valid, and Im more prone to agree with you, but if you leave one out someone is going to get pissed.

Science lessons are for science. You can no more validly get pissed off at leaving out Creationism than you can leaving out Chaucer, or French verbs. They belong in school, just not in science lessons.
RE lesson: "Some people believe that the Christian God created the world in 7 literal days exactly as it is today". Fine.
Science lesson: "Evolution is just a theory, kids. An equally valid theory is put forward called 'Intelligent Design'. Here's how that works." Not fine.

When creationists can provide testable evidence of their claims, in accordance with the Scientific Method, their claims will belong in science lessons. Not before.
And I say that as a Christian who beleives in divine creation (not literal 7 days, we walked with dinosaurs nonsense, but a creator God nonetheless)

 

[B.J.]

Off topic: Cool avatar

Thanks! (my artwork...)

 

[Ashu]

And I completely agree. I mean, if people were so concerned with their children, or children in general, not being taught creationsim, why don't they send them to a religous based school? Or bring them to church like normal people. Or do it themselves.

 

[SPOCKED]

I've always wanted to meet Sir David Attenborough.. shake his hand, look him square in the eye and thank him for his great body of work (so much of which fills my bookcases)

I got to do that actually; he attended the same performance I did at the NT in London once. Obviously he had a nice box rather than my shitty stall seat but I made a point of installing myself in his exit route. Despite being accosted by a nerdy guy wanting to shake his hand, he was the definition of a gentleman, and seemed genuinely humbled by my comments.
Of the (granted fairly short) list of celebrities I've met, he ranks the highest.

Very cool

 

[Red Ranger]

I'm struck by a number of ironies. One: How un-Christian it is to send hate mail. Two: That the anti-science crowd actually uses e-mail, a tool created by scientists and engineers.

Creationism is just the latest scam perpetrated by religious zealots who want their faith taught in schools. If their faith is that strong, they should become missionaries. I for one don't want religion poorly disguised as empirical science shoved down my throat.

The key difference between evolution and creationism (notice I use the small "c") is there is actual physical evidence of evolution, something tangible you can point to and feel, in the form of the fossil record. There is no such concrete proof of creationism or even of intelligent design.

Red Ranger

 

[eepruls]

There is no evidence of God. Religion is a human construct created to keep ancient populations in check. It was written at a time when people didn't know if the Sun would come back tomorrow or what made the women pregnant. Instead of saying, "I don't know", the answer was 'God'. I picture a group of primitive farmers standing on a hill hoping that God will bring rain for their crops. It's all just a bunch of fairy tale nonsense when people didn't know better and it has no place in 2009.

In science, you gather evidence and make conclusions based on that direct evidence. If there isn't any evidence, then the conclusion is "We don't know (yet)". It seems that religious folks bypass this basic scientific method and just conclude it must be a God. You could thus equally say that aliens did it. Or maybe the magical tree?

Evolution actually has direct, tangible evidence and thousands and thousands of scientific studies. We see evolution in action when a virus kills some people but not all or when a bacterium survives antibiotics. We see evidence within the fossil record.

In science we accept the theory with the most evidence as most probable until a great deal of evidence suggests otherwise. Take the 'Theory of Gravity' or 'Theory of Electromagnatism'. Those are both 'theories' but since we have a wealth of evidence to support them, they become the most probable answer to why we stick to the Earth or why electrically charged particles are attracted to each other. Why then, would we put Creationism (a theory with ZERO evidence) at the same level as Evolution? Because it's a possibility? In that case, anything you can dream up is a possibility. But in terms of school, we should teach the approved theory with the most direct evidence, just like we do for every theory ever conceived of in science.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Every day I wake up thinking it's the 21st Century. Every day I'm reminded that it's still the 18th.

 

[Amaris]

Every day I wake up thinking it's the 21st Century. Every day I'm reminded that it's still the 18th.

My friend, there are religious people who live in the 21st century with you, I promise you that.


J.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I know that very well. However, society is held back by its slowest members. Just like a classroom is held back by those noisy clowns over in the corner.

 

[Hoser]

Most of us here tend to frequent the 23rd, no less.