New BBC History of the World: More Atheist Bunkum?

Would most Beeb journalists be pro-Life? or pro-Abortion?

So Andrew Marr, BBC pundit and one time editor of The Independent is doing 'The History of the World' in 8 episodes for the BBC.

Another atheist, liberal viewpoint put out as fact. I recently read that The Guardian (a notoriously liberal pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, pro-drug usage [etc.] newspaper), which has one of the lowest circulations of the dailies, has the biggest circulation amongst papers read at the BBC. For the record, The Independent is possibly even more anti-family, anti-life and anti-Catholic than The Guardian!

Seems the 'culture wars' are not ongoing at the BBC, rather the militant atheists consider the battle won, and are not afraid to push their slant on the world as the only way to see things.

One of my sons told me the other day that most people in the UK still believe in Creation, yet (he asked) 'why do they promote evolution as if it were fact in science classes?'

The 'culture war' is closed as far as the people running our schools are concerned. Just as they teach (most, if not all) children that condoms stop disease and abortions - when the truth is that condoms promote promiscuity and lead to an increase in disease and abortions.

Prof Richard Dawkins today asked who would vote for someone with the whacko beliefs of Mitt Romney. We might also ask who would vote for someone with the whacko beliefs of Richard Dawkins (or indeed Andrew Marr); yet the majority of these people with their extreme, "leap of faith" beliefs (from drug usage to God, from evolution to man-made climate change) are not voted in, they feel they have won the culture wars and now control the BBC, Hollywood, newspapers and the schools.

And so now we get another Beeb series promoting the pet theories of Messers Marr & Co; promoted (lest we forget) through the State TV service that we all pay for.

We have yet to have a major BBC series (I mean 9pm weekday on BBC1) which promotes our Christian heritage, the proof of Creation, and a Christian-centric history series that does not belittle our heritage, our history and our Faith.

The X Files: The Truth is Out There - It Just Ain't Aliens

Do scientists believe in aliens - but not God?

I didn't see it, but an advert on the radio today for a new BBC2 programme about stargazing, featuring Prof Brian Cox and the Irish comedian Dara O'Briain, said that they would be 'looking for extraterrestrial life.'

And this got me to thinking. Stand back please. My wife will tell you this can be dangerous. ;-)

Why is it the "men of science" like prof Cox can theorise on the nature of the universe, can imagine what "might" be out there or how the universe "may" have come about, and now can even suppose on the advent of alien life-forms... yet it is this same breed who poke fun at those who believe in God, and especially those who believe that God created the universe.

"Where is the evidence?" they cry, ignoring much evidence already put before us (Fatima, Turin, Guadalupe and much else besides) but they are willing to believe in evolution of species - despite no missing link evidence at all (but plenty of forgeries), and they are willing to believe in aliens despite no credible evidence at all.

If the boot was on the other foot they would point and pour scorn asking why such leaps of faith are taken in regards to the missing link and alien lifeforms, but because they can theorise and ponder to their hearts content, we must all gaze in awe and hang on their every word.

Science cannot disprove God, because the laws of science were created by God. In twisting the laws of nature to try and "prove" what isn't, they just make themselves look silly, and undermine genuine science.

Some years ago I read an interesting article by the Abbé de Nantes' Catholic Counter Reformation in the 20th Century, a French journal (I forget the author). They wrote some fantastic in-depth treatises on various topics including Medjugorje, the Shroud of Turin and more.

In one article it dealt with "alien life" and it's summary was that some was fake, imagined, forged, hallucinations, secret armed forces tests etc. but for those with some depth to them, that couldn't be explained away, were clearly diabolical, because the central idea behind them was that if aliens exist as a "higher power" it undermined God.

Atheists will be chuckling, of course, but for Christians (who still outnumber them!), if we believe in God we ipso facto believe in (the existence of) Satan -- and do you really think the 'Father of Lies' wouldn't stoop to such levels?

Personally I think most "sightings" can indeed be explained away, so we are only talking about a tiny minority of cases anyway.

Just my opinion anyway... I'd be interested to hear what other Catholics think.

God's Beauty in a Snowflake

Does a snowflake prove the existence of God?

I have often thought the human eye does exactly that. How could a lump of mud "evolve" into a single celled organism? Let alone something as intricate and complicated as the human eye.

Never mind the missing link - how could an eyeball come into existence out of the blue? It just makes no sense at all. The optical nerve and the brain receptors, and the eye itself, all just "came about" hmmm? Or did the eye exist and only later get linked up to the brain?

The atheists like to think that Creation is some sort of cartoon sketch. Well, I can take an all-powerful God creating the intricacies of the human body and the world over the cartoon sketch of a lump of mud "miraculously" coming alive, then growing lungs, legs, a brain, eyes, ears and everything else.

Think about it logically. It just makes no sense.

Now onto the snowflake. if each and every snowflake is as individual as a finger print, does that prove the existence of God? Or surely nature on its own would have no need for such an extravagant gesture? Then again, why would humans have "evolved" individual finger-prints, which serve no "evolutionary" purpose, unless "millions of years ago" the missing links (which have never existed) knew Inspector Morse might need that final clincher in some episodes?

I do not believe in evolution. I believe species can change, whether it's people getting taller, or animals changing slightly (e.g. not growing a third eye etc.) this is commonly known as mutation. There is a world of difference in breeding dogs (for example) to create new breeds, or Moorish influence in Spain meaning modern Spaniards tend to be darker skinned, than the idea that lifeless ooze sprung into life on its own, became fish, mammals, monkeys then men.

I don't believe evolution can account for the finger-print or the human eyeball. As for the snow-flakes, well perhaps I'm just an old romantic, but I see the hand of God in everything in nature that is so beautiful!

Happy St Stephen's Day!

BBC Response to My Newsnight/Dawkins Complaint

Here's the BBC's response to my complaint. My comments are in red:


Thank you for your comments with regard to ‘Newsnight’ broadcast on BBC Two on 13 September.

I understand you were offended by the treatment of religion on the programme.

We acknowledge some viewers were unhappy with the programme’s discussion with Professor Richard Dawkins. We also appreciate some viewers found presenter Jeremy Paxman’s comments offensive. However, we do not agree that it showed anti-Christian bias.

Well, it did. rather than question his thesis, Paxman lauded it. And called Christians bigoted and ignorant.

This discussion centred on Professor Dawkins’ new book, which seeks to counter myths, legends and religious teachings commonly taught to children by replacing them with strict scientific rebuttals. The interview was not about the merits of religion or science as a whole; instead it sought to explore the methods of disseminating knowledge to children, with particular reference to complex subject matter which can be difficult to understand even for the most mature readers.

Yes, the interview (i.e. the BBC) posited that a theory (the big bang) on top of another theory (evolution) are fact. These are not scientific facts. They are theories. They were presented as facts, whereas religion (e.g. Creation) is a myth to be scoffed at.

Jeremy countered Professor Dawkins’ assertions on a number of occasions, stressing that stories and myths are often more interesting than bare scientific explanation. Yes but he did not question the assertion that the Biblical account of Creation is a myth, whereas he blindly accepted prof Dawkins beliefs (including all the 'leaps of faith' needed to accept the Big Bang and Evolution). Jeremy added that such stories and religious interpretations offer comfort and inspire imagination. Jeremy then asked Professor Dawkins why he was concerned that such teachings take place, his comments did not intend to cause offence and instead sought to initiate a variety of responses from the interviewee. Jeremy's interviewing style is well known. He was being provocative by playing devil's advocate. It is a really important element of what makes ‘Newsnight’ what it is. The matter in question was not the validity of Genesis, but the reasoning behind Professor Dawkins’ vehement opposition to such teachings. ‘Newsnight’ or the BBC does not have opinion on either matter. We believe the interview was conducted in an impartial and appropriate manner.

It was certainly not impartial and anyone who saw the interview and read my initial complaint would recognise that. It was a love-in, a hug-fest, in which two people on the "same side" poked fun at religion and stated that Mr Dawkins' beliefs (based on his beliefs - not on what he has seen, for he was not at the Big bang nor has he presented the missing link) were absolute facts, whereas all religious statements are myths and stories, in which Genesis is mixed in with Aboriginal tales. This is like disproving the Big Bang by showing a documentary on a professor who says the earth has a Malteser at its centre and started as a second tier treat in a giant cosmological chocolate assortment box..

I do understand you feel very strongly about this, so I’d like to assure you that I’ve registered your concerns on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that's made available to many BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, programme makers, channel controllers and other senior managers.

Yadda yadda. Where is the apology for a BBC employee calling Christians "idiots" and espousing an atheist belief-system as fact, despite the lack of evidence.

The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions on future BBC programmes and content.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to contact us.

Kind Regards

Mark Madden
BBC Complaints


My response was:

I am sorry but Mr. Paxman did not interview in his usual style - for which he is well renowned. This was akin to a love-in, with two people casting aspersions on the Christian faith.

You have not apologised for Mr. Paxman's derogatory description of Christians and anyone else who does not toe Mr. Dawkin's line on the THEORIES of the Big Bang and Evolution.

If he interviewed someone questioning the moral, personal, societal values of homosexuality and joined that person in make derogatory remarks about homosexuals I feel he would be chastised by the BBC -- and a complainant would see some sort of redress.

As a Christian, of course, I can expect none of this, which shows just how slanted and biased the BBC has become.

It is easy for Dawkins and Paxman to sneer, but most people in this country still describe themselves as Christian, and as tax-payers and licence fee-payers I believe that we should not be the object of such open bias on the BBC.

I feel that my complaint has been all but ignored.


Here's my original article and letter of complaint

BBC's Newsnight Attacks Christians as Idiots and Ignorant

Go see a Paxman-Dawkins Love-In

On tonight's Newsnight the presenter, Jeremy Paxman described Creation and Genesis as a myth. Christians who believe in the Bible were variously called idiots and ignorant. BY THE PRESENTER.

The modern deity of the atheists prof Richard Dawkins got a free ride.

I would ask all Catholics to watch the programme (it will be on BBC i-player soon) and then to complain to the BBC: BBC Complaints Page.

Our Faith is attacked on national TV by the BBC, its presenter and sole guest.

Please forward this message via blogs, forums and sites so that other Catholics and men of good will can complain to the BBC at the blatant propaganda.

I am not ignorant enough to believe Darwinian tosh (presented by Dawkins as fact) and yet to see proof of the missing link.

The BBC is supposed to be unbiased! We know it isn't and always pushes an anti-Christian, liberal atheist agenda. But that does not mean that we should put up with this rubbish.

Please complain.


---

My Complaint:


In the interview with Richard Dawkins PAXMAN [the bbc presenter] called Creation "a Myth". He would never do this about the THEORY of evolution, which was in turn presented as fact.

Christians were called idiots and ignorant. As a Catholic that belives in the Holy Word of God I was deeply affronted and upset. Not just by a totally uncritical presentation of dawkins, his theories and his advert for his book; but also that a BBC employee was allowed to poke fun at me, my beliefs and the Catholic Faith (as the oldest Christian Church and the largest Christian religion, to think otherwise is implausable or simplistic at best).

It was my belief that the BBC is meant to be impartial. yet this mutual love-in between Paxman and Dawkins was so uncritical, biased and warped as to be quite sickening.

Will the BBC do something similar next week with a Catholic theologian defending the Word of God, while the presenter joins in on their side, pouring bile at those who think we used to be monkeys?

No? Why not?

That is what you just did to millions of Christians.

The BBC is supposed to be unbiased. Increasingly I am finding that this is not the case.

I pay my license fee. I am a Christian. I believe the Bible.

If I were disabled, coloured, Jewish, Muslim, homosexual etc. etc. I would have "rights" and the BBC would never dare to "have a pop" at me in which the presenter joined a guest in ridiculing me or my worldview.

Yet because I happen to be a Catholic who believes in Catholic truth, I am allowed to be ridiculed and have my 'belief system' trampled upon by the BBC, its presenter and its guest.

Please next week can we have someone opposed to "homosexual equality" where the BBC presenter joins in on their side and ridicules those who believe that homosexuality is on a par with heterosexuality and/or married life?

I look forward to that now that I have seen the new way Newsnight is being presented.

Doctrine, Education, Creation and Salvation

A fellow Catholic was telling me of how he overheard another Catholic loudly dismissing Creation in that all so modern "as if" way, that dismisses Creation in the wave of a hand and brings in evolution as the fact-of-the-matter 'so obvious' historical fact that we should all just wake up and accept.

I had all but forgotten about this tale when this week I was flicking through a book lent to me by a kind soul. Archbishop Sheehan's Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine is quite a tome, but what a treasure trove! I have already learnt so much from it and reminded myself of facts I'd forgotten from way back when. Heaven and Hell, Angels, Purgatory, Indulgences - and much more besides. There was also a great section on 'Sola Scriptura' which I'd spoken to fellow parishioners about just the other week - how the Bible itself (in the Gospels and St Paul's letters) proves the argument against Sola Scriptura and thus undermines the Protestants own arguments! Plus as our parish priest keeps reminding us: who put the Bible together - but the Catholic Church herself!

Anyhow, just last night I was flicking through the book (a great way to see what catches your eye and what you'll delve into for a 10 minute read) and I noticed a section on evolution. Being in a rush I cherry picked a few points. My plan is to return to it tonight, having bookmarked the section, and read it in-depth.

What I found interesting is that Archbishop Sheehan makes it clear that not only is Evolution a theory, as such it is an UNPROVEN theory.

So why is it taught as a fact in our schools? Why do scientists etc. talk about it as a fact? Why on the news programmes are billions of years and evolution broadcast as concrete-facts? And why do so many Catholics rush to embrace evolution?

Is it because believing in evolution for the former groups help disprove God? And for the latter group is it because they then think Catholics will be more "modern" and less "medieval?"

Evolution is a theory. It is an unproven theory. So why the rush to promote it and embrace it?

I have a theory of my own.

Christ became incarnate and was crucified for our sins. He was the second Adam to undo the harm done by Adam and open the gates of Heaven for us. We have all (I hope) heard this in sermons. It is in our catechisms.

So logically if the modern world can "prove" by sheer force of weight ('the bigger the lie...') that we were all newts, then fish, then reptiles, then mammals, then apes, then men -- then Adam was not created by God, did not exist. Eden becomes a fantasy and history is rewritten.

There is no Original Sin (and the atheists love that as we can all then wallow in our concupiscent nature in a sea of filth) and therefore the Incarnation and Passion of Our Lord becomes meaningless.

With no Original Sin, there is no Redemption. No first Adam, no second Adam in Our Lord Jesus Christ.

That is why the theory of evolution is pushed as undeniable fact. That is why anyone who doubts evolution is painted as a one-toothed backwoodsman who's married his sister.

Our Faith is undermined in the media, in the schools, and in the precincts of our own churches by those who promote the infallibility of the evolutionists.

Our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church has given us the ammunition to fight back against this onslaught, against this unproven theory that undermines the Salvific nature of Christ's Incarnation and Passion; it would be helpful if Catholics in the pews read their Catechisms and other works so that we, at least can be well informed and answer the lies and distortions of the media and the "experts."

Perhaps some kind readers can point out some handy online resources which help push the correct Catholic line on Creation, natural science etc. I would especially like to see materials that can be used with children and.or of a easy-to-understand nature for adults not especially theologically or scientifically minded.

I have read in many places that Catholic education is not what it used to be (i.e. Catholic). In fact the friend who lent me Archbishop Sheehan's book told me that it "used to be" used in Catholic schools. What a shame this thoroughly Catholic blockbuster that nails so many lies and puts forward so many Truths in a clear, concise and yet profound way (which is so easy to dip in and out of) is no longer used in Catholic schools.

Sometimes I do wonder why we as Catholics make it so easy for the enemy to undermine our Faith and our Church... when we should fighting the good fight to defend the rights and Kingship of Christ, including against those who might wish that Jesus Christ, like Adam, had not existed - and the useful idiots they have brow-beaten or cajoled into believing one of the biggest lies in history: the unproven theory that is evolution.

God's Creation is Sublime and Beautiful - and Cheesy!

There is much debate about the creation of the universe. The atheists talk-up the big bang theory as if it were fact (hint: a theory is a theory). Part of this is the theory of evolution (again a theory).

These days, from the BBC to the classroom, these theories are promoted and pushed as established facts, not theories. Anyone who thinks otherwise is painted as a backwoodsman or a nutty extremist (professors, scientists and others who do not follow the money are airbrushed out of the equation, of course).

The Human Eye

To me it is a matter of faith. We can choose between two religions. Each involve leaps of faith. Both entail belief in something that cannot, in and of itself, be proven (though I would argue, of course, that the evidence of God is all around us, and of His Son Jesus Christ is well documented). Yet there is no doubt that the evolution religion is in the ascendancy.

Personally I have always thought that the human eye proves creation. It proves the hand of a sentient being, creating things of such sublime beauty, such individuality, and such intricate complexity - that there is no way it could have happened by happy chance, with lightning hitting a lump of mud x billions of years ago. Everything about the human eye screams that is was made, designed and perfected by God.


I wasn't feeling very well this afternoon, a bit tired and sick, so early evening I thought I'll have a little pick-me-up (I happen to have a dispensation from fasting) and when I went to the kitchen I saw a sight which made my heart leap for joy. There, sat on the side was some Italian cheese, but not just any Italian cheese, it was Parmigiano Reggiano. I cut off a small piece (part of its beauty is you only need a small piece, such is its maturity and taste), and nibbled on it. Oh the wonderful taste of that cheese! Not even Caerphilly cheese comes close.

And I got to wonder at the beauty of God's creation.

A Sign From the Good Cheese's region

Sometimes we search for perfect examples of God and his creation. Sure we have intricate examples such as the human eye, and for us Catholics we have the sublime wonder that is transubstantiation and the miracle of the Real Presence -- though I fully admit that the latter is difficult for non-Catholics to grasp.

Sometimes I think that the beauty of more "ordinary" things can reflect the beauty of creation and the Creator. It can sound 'schmaltzy' I know, but a leaf on a tree, a bumble bee in flight, a catfish in a rockpool, sometimes these can stir the soul. And do you know what? When I tasted that Parmigiano Reggiano today, when its flavour burst in my mouth, I thanked God. That fullness of flavour, that glorious texture. What a gift from God's bounty!

I have a mug, which I use every day for my many cups of tea (much to my good lady's chagrin, for she likes her tea in far daintier receptacles) which bears the legend:

"Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,

There’s always laughter and good red wine. 

Though the quote continues:

At least I’ve always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!"

It also has the image of Hilaire Belloc, the Catholic writer, journalist, MP, social commentator and defender of the Common Good and the Faith, from whom the quote comes. It hardly seems fair to drink such an abstentious drink as tea in a vessel bearing such a quote, though at Lent it does seems more apt.

God created this world and all that's in it, of that I am sure. There is so much of beauty in it,so much for which to thank our Creator. And so it is that I can see Almighty God reflected in a small nugget of Italian cheese.

So, with huge apologies to Hilaire Belloc, may his soul rest in peace, here goes:

God's Creation can stun and please,
'Tis mirrored in fine Italian cheese. 
At least I’ve always found it so. 
Benedicamus Domino!