SIR David Attenborough’s refusal to “credit” God for beautiful creatures like hummingbirds in his popular wildlife programmes has made him a target for hate mail.
Sir David with a "beautiful creature" crackpot fundies claim is a "gift from God".
In an interview with the Radio Times about his latest documentary on Charles Darwin and natural selection, Sir David said:
They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance.
According to this report, he told the magazine that, whenever he is asked about his failure to give the Lord his due regarding beautiful things like hummingbirds, he replies by referring to:
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.
Sir David, who attended the Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester from the 1930s, told the magazine he was astonished at manifestations of Christian faith.
He said:
It never really occurred to me to believe in God – and I had nothing to rebel against, my parents told me nothing whatsoever. But I do remember looking at my headmaster delivering a sermon, a classicist, extremely clever … and thinking, he can’t really believe all that, can he? How incredible!
Sir David also said it was “terrible, terrible” when creationism and evolution were taught in schools as equivalent, alternative perspectives.
It’s like saying that two and two equals four, but if you wish to believe it, it could also be five… Evolution is not a theory; it is a fact, every bit as much as the historical fact that William the Conqueror landed in 1066.
Speaking about the relationship between people and the rest of nature, Sir
David said:
People say to me: ‘What is a mosquito for? They’re no good for anything!’ The basic notion that the world is our oyster, that we have domination over all things, that they are here for us …
Asked where that view comes from, Sir David replied:
The Bible, of course. Genesis, chapter one.
Speaking about views 2,000 years ago, he said:
The idea that the Lord had given us a present, that the world is a gift from God… well, the amount of stuff, back then, that the Lord was giving away was limited. We do not have dominion.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
January 27th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
how dare that child not appreciate god’s great gift of the eyeball worm! seriously, are these people nuts?
January 27th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
What a delightful post! Amen to that Sir…
January 27th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I had hoped not to post again on this blog but you have printed a falsehood that needs to be corrected. It is not “hate mail” to warn someone of the need to repent or face Hell when they die. It is an act of kindness to warn someone of danger. If you are going to print anti Christian stuff at least get the terminology right.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Oh, and before you ask – I haven’t sent him any stuff!!
January 27th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Actually Bob, hate mail is far too PC a term.
I’d just call it cretinism.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
As if we needed any more evidence to show how mindless and nasty these pathetic xtains are. David Attenborough certainly has more integrity and intelligence than his critics. I’m sure he is very worried about going to an imaginary place – I think not!
January 27th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
How can, “If you don’t believe in the same invisible friend as I do, then you will suffer the torments of hell for ever and ever and then some. So There!” NOT be hate mail?
January 27th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
But I do remember reading Bob’s posts, extremely clever … and thinking, he can’t really believe all that, can he? How incredible!
January 27th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Oh silly me. I misinterpreted the “good riddance” bit as hate mail! Rather than the “act of kindness” it so obviously is! Twat!
January 27th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I just always find it funny how these people can say something like ‘You’re going to hell, good riddance!’ and still call themselves good Christians. You would think things like ‘Love thy neighbour’ and ‘Turn the other cheek’ would come to mind, after all that’s what their zombie god told them to do isn’t it? Even if he didn’t say that he surely said that ‘Judgement is reserved only for the Lord’ and this sounds like humans judging humans to me. Tut tut Christians, I guess you’re going to hell for not following your own rules.
And good riddance!
January 27th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
You’d think these xtians with their absolutes and certainties would just sit smugly by if they really believe their dogma, rather than be shaken by a few scientists. What do the religious really fear – having to admit they are wrong. Gods only exist in mythology and the minds of the weak minded.
January 27th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
What is it with these religious cretins? When they’re not busy picking fights with followers of other equally barmy faiths, they are sending offensive stuff to people simply because the recipients are a) a million times more intelligent than they are, and b) have open minds. This kind of stuff just shows the fundies up as the nasty, spiteful, dimwitted cowards they really are. I heard on the radio somewhere this morning that Telford is the most ‘Godless’ place in the country (i.e. they reckon it’s the place with the fewest number of religious fuckwits there). Never has a rather unremarkable Midlands new town seemed more attractive!
January 27th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
duhhh! that eyeball-muncher was put here by satan!! either that, or by god as a way of testing that heretical boys faith! it’s like one of gods minions on earth, so that he doesn’t have to show himself too often and maybe convince us that he exists. we wouldnt want that now would we!
January 27th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Hey Bob
Evolution is weeding out the christians. If I suspected anyone of being overly religious I wouldn’t give them a job.
This for the evolved people. Next time you’re obliged to sit through a “christian” service (They still manage to hijack our marriages and deaths) picture the man in a black dress as a wizard, though not as endearing as Gandalf. It can stop you getting angry at funerals when the “g” word is mentioned.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
This story is a perfect contrast to the previous story about ‘morally bankrupt Telford’; in the Telford story we have the usual self righteous Xian blatting on about other people’s lives in order to aggrandize himself, because as we all know, being a Xian makes you better than everyone else, and just below that first story, there is this one, with the same morally excellent Xians, who are better than everyone else merely cos they are Xians, sending hate mail and telling a wonderful man like David Attenborough to go to hell and good riddance.
ummmm….exactly who is it, Xians, who are ‘morally bankrupt’ here please?
January 28th, 2009 at 5:33 am
He was not being warned by the message, it was hate mail. The definition of warn is to urge or advise to be careful; caution. Attenborough was not being advised to be careful of anything, he was being told to go and suffer in hell, not any act of kindness. So if you are going to post theistic things, please get your terminology right.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:43 am
You are morally bankrupt if you try to suppress free speech.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Precisely Bob – and who are the people who are most aggressive in their attempts to suppress free speech? Morally bankrupt Christians like yourself and your wank buddy “Birdshit” Green!
January 28th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Alun: you say that you wouldn’t give a job to one who is “overly religious”. That is blatant persecution, you must repent.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:24 am
Marcus: I don’t attempt to suppress free speech. I welcome the athiest advert as it gives an opportunity for discussion. By the way, did you know that the Trinitarian Bible Society have set aside 35 grand to put the following advert on London buses “The fool has said in his heart ‘there is no God’” this is taken from Psalm 14 v 1.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Quite a while ago, I ceased to be disturbed by the extremes of behavior exhibited by the believers of these superstitions when I realized their views are the result of deficiencies in experience, deficiencies in natural reasoning ability and poor education and also deficiency of personal willpower to do whatever is necessary to discover the authentic truth versus the easy answer. In one way or another, these persons are dysfunctional from mildly to severely and often requiring professional treatments. I do not and will not tolerate their factual and logical errors – to tolerate them would be a betrayal of my values of healthy life, accurate observation and consistently logical reasoning – however, I do and will continue to have compassion for the persons thus afflicted with these dysfunctions. I can’t bring myself to hate them when I realize they are human life that has somehow can horribly wrong and in need of sympathy and help if I can give it.
When a human being is clearly delusional, you do neither yourself nor them any service by buying into their delusions or becoming angry at them for their disabilities. To react to them in anger is rather the same as one losing one’s temper because an individual is blind or deaf, is missing a leg or is unable to walk entirely. I believe most of us think it wrong to punish those who are already disabled in some fashion. Do not punish the superstitious because of their intellectual disabilities, no matter how extreme their behaviors. To many, it will seem counterintuitive to look upon those afflicted gently, however, if you are a genuinely healthy and rational human being, it will seem the most natural response there is. These persons need help to overcome their delusions. They will only receive it from those who do not suffer the same disabilities.
I applaud David Attenborough for adhering to reason in his productions rather than bowing to the ravings of the intellectually disabled.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Yes I agree but Bob is still a twat.
January 28th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Imagine a scenario where all the present day mythical diety’s are in a bar discussing their successes. The muslim god would say ‘Well at least my lot are killing in my name and spreading fear’ The jewish god would say ‘Well at least my lot are kicking ass in the middle east’. At this point the christian God looks deeply embarrassed and says ‘I created Bob?’
January 28th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I have adored Mr Attenborough since I was a child (yes, even when I was a Christian!) and his wisdom and fierce intelligence, his reason and rationality combined with his geniuene love and passion for the world around him, make him the best broadcaster… just.. ever. Ever.
I cannot understand why nut-job fundies would want to target him, but it’s probably beyond understanding. Sod Bob. He ought to watch ‘Blue Planet’, take a long look at something as arse-ugly as the Deep Sea Angler Fish, and then answer the question ‘If God created all animals as either objects of food or beauty for man, which would you rather do to the deep sea angler fish? Eat it or look at it?’
January 28th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Well said Rozi. Sir David is a national treasure. We’re lucky to have people like him at the heart of our national media culture for so long. The only sad thing is that we don’t have very many wise elders in our benighted tribe.
January 28th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Naumadd, whilst I appreciate what your saying I have to disagree. Of course I would never get angry with anybody with a mental or physical illness and granted, most if not all believers have a mental illness. The difference is that their illness compels them to try and control everything I do, think, eat, say, shag etc. etc….. and that’s where I draw the line. Appeasement is what’s allowed them to get to the position they are in today and enough is enough. Maybe Im a heartless bastard but I have no compassion for them whatsoever and they have even less for me.
I was raised in a strict catholic environment, school and home and I suffered at the hands of these bastards, there will be no forgiveness from me, fuck em!
See it didn’t do me any harm
January 28th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Pazma, I feel the same. However, I just found out from a Sam Harris lecture from 2005 that Jesus also said, in Luke 19, that if a man doesn’t want me to reign over him, bring him before me and slay him before me. So Christians do have a rational for behaving in this way given the irrationality of their beliefs.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Who’s up for a bit of sublime irony? birdshit Green and his gang have been told by the ASA, to take down an advert.
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adju....._45678.htm
Bwaaaaaah.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
To Naumadd & Wurble
I am totally with Wurble on this. While I agree with your take on the unintelligence of believers, giving them sympathy for that is a thing of the past for me. It’s fine to talk about having sympathy with people who are missing a leg, to quote one of your examples, but if those people were determined to cut a leg off every one of the rest of us so that we could all be the same as them, I’m sure your feelings of sympathy for them would receed very quicly!
If believers would just get on with their own thing and leave the rest of us alone, that would be fine and I’m sure everyone here would agree with you. But that is just not the case. They are busying themselves making sure that they stuff their silly superstitions in our faces as much as possible in the vain hope that one day we will become as stupid as they are and repent.
There are a number of examples of this here today, and that’s only today!!!
Firstly, the case of the barber sentenced to death for having an opinion the meccan menace, then the story about the people of Telford who are to be subjected to some retard who, incapable of accepting the people of that town’s right to come to their own conclusions about life the universe and everything (the answer to which having already been shown to be 42), is determined to change their minds about god whether they like it or not, next we have a nice decent, intelligent guy like David Attenborough being targeted by these lunatics relishing the thought of him suffering in hell for all eternity just for having the audacity to actually think before coming to a conclusion about the likelyhood of god being involved in the design of the various species on this planet and then Bob, who has the dimwittedness to come in here and comment on such an injustice with the remark “You are morally bankrupt if you try to suppress free speech”!!! WTF!!!
Suppressing free speech is one of the main aims of islam, it’s what the Church Mission Society is planning to do in Telford and what all these nice xtians are doing to David Attenborough. So I guess we were all right all along. Religions and religious people are morally bankrupt and we have that straight from the donkey’s mouth.
If these people are going to be so stupid, AND try to control my life they will get no sympathy from me! Religions are making life on this planet much less enjoyable for many people than it should or could be. If Bob and his morons genuinely believe in free speech they should butt out of everyone elses life and, as another poster said, leave it up to god. That way we’ll all be happy. Except god of course because his non existance will seriously impair his ability to experience happiness, or anything else for that matter.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
I wish the Trinitarian Bible Society had the courage to quote the whole verse from that psalm:
And then try justifying the claim to the Advertising Standards Authority.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Good point Mr McKeegan, but it is unlikely that a long advert like that would fit on the poster so that the words are big enough to be seen afar off.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
It’s not just God – David Attenborough has also failed to acknowledge the existence of unicorns, griffins, fairies and dragons in any of his nature programmes.
And this man calls himself a scientist!
January 29th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Wow, I stand on the shoulders of a giant. When I was a child, I had the very same reaction ,re: never occurring to me to believe in God.
And having a very similar reaction to the Baptist church I grew up in albeit briefly; do adults really believe this stuff.
I mean, I got the principle of the Bible stories, most of them were, Yay Israelite People, Yay! And they were good stuff for the most part; then they say; OK Virgin Birth, Resurrection, Bloody Substitution Salvation, got to believe that too, kid.
I went, uh, no thanks, I think I got the point of the story without the weird mojo. Besides, didn’t you adults just do a take back on the Santa Thing!?
January 29th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
The point is, Bob – do you believe that verse is true? That atheists “are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good”?
January 30th, 2009 at 12:52 am
Isn’t Bill Gates an atheist? If I remember rightly, he is, and he donates massive amounts of his fortune to help others. I myself, corrupt as I am, often donate to a variety of charities (always non-religious ones mind), thus, just myself and Bill Gates alone have proved the Bible wrong. welllll…that’s not all that hard to do really, is it?
There are none so slimy as the self righteous hypocrite who points the finger, who opens his mouth to pass judgement…oh, sorry, who was it again who said, JUDGE NOT? wasn’t it that dead Jewish guy that sooo many good Xians loonies love to fall on their knees before in worship? Not a single one of them i have meet has ever lived by the rules that their confused ‘god’ ever proclaimed; Hell, is full of hypocritical xian finger-pointers. Oh yeah, that same confused dead Jew said something like ‘love your enemy’…where’s the love, Bobbie Boy? Why aren’t you sending me vibes of love instead of flinging lies? oh, so easy to fling lies isn’t it? Much harder to ACTUALLY live the life good ol’ Jewish Jesus told you to…sold ALL of your possessions yet and given them to the poor?
January 30th, 2009 at 2:03 am
Yeah. What Callisto said.
Sell all your worldly goods and chattels and give the proceeds to the poor.
Bob. I’m poor. I dream of a pot to piss in. In fact I dream of being in a comfortable bed where I can dream of having a pot to piss in.
I don’t ask for much. I don’t fuckin’ get much.
All I ask is this -
LEAVE MY FUCKING CORNFLAKES ALONE!
February 8th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I welcome Sir Richard Attenborough’s life-work and education, and love to watch his programs.
Equally, I hate to see some ‘free thinking’ posts on this comments column so blatantly offensive. They have misunderstood human duty of conduct toward fellow man, woman and child.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:19 am
The people on here are disgusting. I don’t think they can even be called people, because they are barely human beings in my eyes.
Disgusting ignorance.
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:21 am
lulz, Bob is a christfag.
June 5th, 2009 at 8:54 am
To state that evolution is a fact is to laugh at the science that states it is a theory. To believe what this or that theologian states is creation or more precisely, to believe someones perception of what the Bible states as to creation is to mis-interpret reality. Do not quote people and then state all is not right. Reality is there are many problems with evolution if you look, there are answers to creation if you look. You've made your choice, state it as your choice. But in making that choice you have decided to either seek or deny God, and either way, that is your choice to live with.
June 7th, 2009 at 7:08 am
By your logic, if I go up to someone and tell them "This man will kill you if you don't believe in evolution", that is not a threat, it is an act of kindness, a helpful suggestion that they should start to believe otherwise they risk death.
June 10th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
You are aware that the word "theory" has a different meaning in scientific discourse than it does in everyday speech, right? If not, then allow me to provide a quick breakdown. A scientific theory is an objective explanation for observable phenomena that relies on supporting evidence. Nothing in science can be proven, as proof requires perfect knowledge ( X works because of Y in ALL possible scenarios) which we humans sadly lack.
Technically, gravity is just a theory, you are free to reject it if you want, or posit your own theory if you like (actually there are currently several competing theories regarding gravity)
Also, the "theory" of evolution has been validated time and again in the laboratory and in the real world, both as micro- and macro-evolution and has been described as the linchpin of the biological sciences, so while evolution is not technically fact, it is certainly disingenuous, presumptuous, and ignorant to dismiss evolution as merely a "theory".
September 21st, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Sir David is great at what he does, but he is like all of us, a creature and there is a creator. He will die like all of us.
January 16th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
These arguments between the loony evangelists and rabid atheists never go anywhere. You should all see the true light of agnosticism and repent. It may be a fool who says in his heart that there is no god, but it takes a wise person to say “there might not be a god but it is a possibility”, and on top of that it takes an even wiser person to say “Hey, do I really care either way?”
May 9th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
“It may be a fool who says in his heart that there is no god, but it takes a wise person to say “there might not be a god but it is a possibilityâ€
It is not foolish to think that there is no god, but in the same time be open to the possibility of there being one. This is the stance most atheists take (although convincing them of the possibility of the obviously manmade Abrahamic god would be more difficult). Its also one thing to believe that X may be a possibility, its another thing to believe that X is true.
“it takes an even wiser person to say “Hey, do I really care either way?â€
And the wiser person may reach the conclusion “Yes, because peoples beliefs inform their actions, rights and lives are taken away on the basis that X said so and that X will send them to hell if they did not think the same”.