The Genius of Charles Darwin

[Chris Worfolk]

Did anyone else catch the Channel 4 documentary on Monday? Seemed quite good, not much new from my point of view but very useful for people who don't really know much about evolution.

We also got into an interesting debate yesterday about whether they did themselves a favour by getting Richard Dawkins to host it.

[AlexMagd]

I thought it was good, but I was a bit suspicious of the way he jumped from 4/10 people believe God created the world to 4/10 people don't believe in evolution. The standard dogma of most liberal denominations (and even the Catholics) is that evolution could be true, just that God may have started the process off.

[StuartPilbrow]

I thought it was a really good program. I know if I were still in secondary school it would have made me understand it alot more. Although I of course believed in evolution back then, and it was taught, it was taught badly I think. It wasn't until college that I really understood it, and that was through my own learning.
I was suprised by how many children in that class believed in God, and didn't believe in evolution, but I guess thats why they chose that class. In my class you certainly wouldn't have found anyone who didn't believe in evolution (despite the poor amount of time spent on it), and I even think you would have been hard pushed to find anyone who even believed in God.
I think getting Richard Dawkins to present it was a good move. It showed him in his proper profession and hopefully removed the stereotype that he's an extreamist Atheist. I prefer Dawkins when he talks about evolution anyway.

[AlexMagd]

He's already got a bit of a slating for throwing in so many "religion sucks" type comments when really, in a biography of Darwin, it's not that necessary. I say fair play to him: you can't think of evolution these days without seeing it in relation to Intelligent Design or as one side of a very common argument so the frequent dismissal of religion was appropriate in my eyes. Doesn't do much to help educate the "evolution = atheism" camp, and if the Internet is any judge there are lots and lots and lots of them.

[grammar king mike]

I didn't see it but as soon as I've got my laptop up and running I'll see if I can get it online.

I'm also a bit suspicious about the 4/10 bit. 4/10 people where? What exactly was the wording of it? The Gallup Polls in the US do give figures similar to that. I think the last figure I saw was that 47% of Americans believe that God created the world more or less in its present form within the last 10,000 years. If he's using that figure then it would be justified, otherwise it's just bad science, which isn't very characteristical of him.

[norman]

The series is available free on 4 on Demand if you have it :D

[AlexMagd]

Hahhaa my old chemistry teacher was on this week's show! Good old Mr Cowan, the man the whole world now knows is as mad as a box of frogs (to quote from RD.net)