Not all that hard to believe

But depressing nonetheless.

Sir David Attenborough has revealed that he receives hate mail from viewers for failing to credit God in his documentaries. In an interview with this week's Radio Times about his latest documentary, on Charles Darwin and natural selection, the broadcaster said: "They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance."

Telling the magazine that he was asked why he did not give "credit" to God, Attenborough added: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of 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."

Attenborough went further in his opposition to creationism, saying it was "terrible" when it was taught alongside evolution as an alternative perspective. "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."

Anyone who has ever seen one of Attenborough's immaculate (yes, immaculate) nature shows...from 'Planet Earth' to 'Trials of Life' to 'Blue Planet' to 'Life on Earth' to the "Life of Plants...Birds...or Mammals" ... or any of his many other nature shows knows that the man is one of the great gifts to humanity in the last 5 decades.

I'd take Attenborough over any random assortment of 50,000 theologians any day.

[Fez tip to Moonbotica]