7
Setting the tone
Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life (BBC1, Sunday) was presented by David Attenborough, who proves everything Darwin ever wrote about the survival of the fittest. Here is a man who was always superbly adapted to his environment: the Antarctic, a snake-infested jungle, or the far more terrifying world of the BBC bureaucracy.
Attenborough was far too gentlemanly to ram any religious points down our throats; the message was implied, hinted. For instance, it is firmly believed by many fundamentalists that Darwin went to his grave believing in a Supreme Being, yet, as Attenborough pointed out, he used to take his family to church, leave them there and go for a thoughtful walk. In Radio Times Attenborough says that he gets letters from people saying that the beauty and wonder of a humming bird proves the existence of God. Then what, he asks them, about the parasitical worm in Africa that lives by burrowing into children’s eyes?
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