“Charles Darwin And The Tree Of Life”
I confess that I’ve never had a biology lesson in my life because, for most of my school years, my school did not have a biology teacher. But, of course, over the subsequent years I’ve read things around the subject. I’ve always been utterly unpersuaded by the notion of creationism – it makes no sense and there is no supporting evidence. Conversely, I’ve always found the idea of evolution totally convincing – it is an elegant explanation and it is supported by masses of evidence.
This evening, I watched a television programme that was the clearest and most illuminating that I’ve ever seen on the theory of evolution: “”Charles Darwin And The Tree of Life”. It was written and presented by the brilliant David Attenborough. You can read more about the programme, see when it will be repeated, and find more information on evolution here.
Footnote (2/1/09): Today it is reported that, here in the UK, only one quarter of people believe that Darwin’s theory of evolution is “definitely true” with another quarter holding that it is “probably true”. Some 10% are young earth creationists while another 12% back intelligent design. The final quarter are unsure. This is why I wrote my essay on “Why people believe weird things”.
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I watched the programme and thought it was superb. Not everybody thinks so, though. See Sir David Attenborough: religious viewers send me hate mail for not crediting God, in which Attenborough says he expects to receive more invitations to “burn in hell” following last night’s programme.