Nice to see The Genius of Charles Darwin...

Question

on television presented by the awesome Richard Dawkins.

Why do you think the series has been taken up by Channel 4 rather than on the BBC?

and how do you think that will affect the amount/kind of audience who views it and the way it is received?

Answer 1

the BBC are filming a documentary on Darwin which is being narrated by Sir David Attenborough (got it straight from the man himself) which is probably why they did not show this one. It is due out sometime this year according to Attenborough and focuses on Darwin and how his theory has evolved.

As much as I respect Dawkins as a scientist I find him narrowminded and hipocritical so I'll be waiting for the Attenborough program.

P.S. Rex the theory of evolution does not state that one species turns into another that is a complete misconception, evolution is the gradual divergence of species, so an ancestor of both a cat and a dog gradually evolved to become each different species. they never switched from one to another and micro evolution has been shown in bacteria but to see the kind of changes you are suggesting would take millions of years not hundreds!

Answer 2

Rex... Genetics is exactly what explains evolution! How else can you explain hereditary traits passed down through generations... things like height and hair colour or a funny birthmark or the ability to roll your tongue... this is evolution on a minute scale. As Debbie says, evolution does not mean the instant switching or mixing of species - in fact it is generally driven by the reproductive isolation of a species - that is they DON'T interbreed! Richard Dawkins is an exceptional thinker, and his selfish gene theory explains evolution on a genetic level rather than whole individual or species level, and his ideas have brought a new way of describing evolution and biology in general. However he has become arrogant and hypocritical in his later works and has become much more vocal about his disdain for religion.

Evolution is not an alternative to religion. I have never understood why so many poeple think this. Darwin was not an atheist (neither Erasmus nor Charles). In fact Charles Darwin was a scholar of theology at one point... hardly the subject of an atheist! Although evolution is an alternative to creationism, this does not mean that you cannot have faith as well as knowing (rather than believing - its not a case of believing in evolution, thats like saying that you believe in air, or water, or gravity) about evolution and in criticising people who do have any faith, Richard Dawkins has become exactly the kind of person that he is criticising.  

Answer 3

Ben Stein destroyed nothing but his own reputation for such outrageous lies as are told in "Expelled".  Richard Dawkins and Charles Darwin are far above Ben Stein in intelligence and morality. This question involves knowledge of British TV. I have some BBC DVD's, so I gather it is on a higher intellectual level than Channel 4. This does not seem to be such a good idea.

Answer 4

But did you see how Ben Stein (Bueller?... Bueller?...) destroyed Richards Dawkins in his documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed?"

Answer 5

It amazes me that people who have seen one or two television programs on a subject think they are experts in the field. I have no television. I have read Darwin and Dawkins, and their critics. The whole issue has become obfuscated by the personal agendas of those in the debate.

Answer 6

Before you give Charles too much credit check out his grandfather, Erastmus.  I may have misspelled the name.  What is important is that he was part of the Lunar Society of scientics at the Royal Academy. They met on the full moon for dinner and planned ways to separate science from religion.  Darwin the elder came up with the theory that his grandson went looking to prove and thought he had when he found an island of finches adapted to various methods of feeding.  They were all still birds.  Since the theory was published (and plagarized from his grandfather) there have been no links found in over a 100 years of serious searching to show one genus turned into another.  No dogs into cats, etc.  The adaptations among the dog family, cows, horses, cats, and many others are mostly from human breeding programs.  Just remember, most interspecies mixes are not fertile, so do not continue - like the mule (horse/donkey mix).  That would have been a help to humans as mules are fairly smart and hard workers, but even Darwin can't change genetics.