"The Genius Of Charles Darwin" And Dawkins

The BBC recently aired a program called "The Genius of Charles Darwin." I hope it makes it over here, at least in DVD form. But as one should expect, even in the UK believers cried foul and whined.

Here's one ignorant grievance, published in the TimesOnline:

But most believers are not creationists. Some are scientists. They reckon that an omnipotent being capable of giving humans free will is equally capable of setting a cosmic ball rolling - Big Bang, abiogenesis, all that - and letting it proceed through eons of evolution, selection and struggle. One of the oddest aspects of Dawkins's TV programme, rich in antelope-mauling and gobbly snakes, was his emotional implication that, gee, Nature is too cruel to have been invented by God! A wet, mawkish, bunny-hugging argument.

Can you believe that crass stupidity comes not from Alabama, but from the UK?

Dawkins has replied to this bilge, and his response touches on a previous post on this blog.

I expect it’s true that the few believers Libby Purves meets over canapés are not creationists. But “most believers”? Most believers in Bradford? The Scottish Highlands? Pakistan? Indonesia? The Arab world? South America? Indeed, North America? Polls suggest that more than 40 per cent of the British population are creationists. For the subset who call themselves believers, the figure must be considerably more than 50 per cent. Please don’t say “most people”, when what you really mean is Islington and Hampstead Garden Suburb.

I once heard a radio host and creationist say that Dawkins really gets on his nerves. I bet. Theologic excuses are no match for the unintentionally hilarious wit of well-reasoned arguments/sarcasm.