To counter the creationists he became a beekeeper in order to show that near perfect hexagons in honeycombs were raised by instinct and not by design. Darwin’s Struggle: The Evolution of the Origin of Species, BBC 2009
By 1844 Darwin had placed Malthus’s ideas on population at the core of his theory of national selection as a mechanism by which evolution occurred. The war of nature destroyed the weaklings. ibid.
For a hundred and fifty years a revolutionary idea has been spreading all over the world. It has helped us unravel the mysteries of creation. Transforming our understanding of life on Earth. And our own place in Nature. But this idea has implications that go far beyond science. Its legacy reaches deep into every area of our lives. Andrew Marr, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, BBC 2009
There are many aspects of the universe that still cannot be explained satisfactorily by science; but ignorance only implies ignorance that may someday be conquered. To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. Isaac Asimov, The Threat of Creationism
They insist that animals and man were created separately only ten thousand years ago. And that evolutionary theory is not more scientific than what they call Scientific Creationism. They demand their right by law to have it taught in public schools. Horizon: Did Darwin Get It Wrong? BBC 1981
For scientists ancient religious texts are not sources of knowledge in the natural world. And to treat them as if they are is absurd. There’s no room for the God of Biblical creationism in modern Science. But Creationism like everything else evolves. And in America in the 1990s a new version emerged, claiming it wasn’t based on the Bible but on Science. This movement is called Intelligent Design. Horizon: The End of God? A Horizon Guide to Science and Religion, BBC 2010
In 2006 Horizon covered a legal challenge to the teaching of Intelligent Design. Once again the argument was over what was taught in the American classroom. ibid.
The judge ruled there was a clear religious purpose behind Intelligent Design. ibid.
One of science’s greatest theories – evolution – is under attack. The threat is emerging from the only scientific super-power on Earth, provoking some of the biggest names in science to hit back. Horizon: A War on Science, BBC 2006
This is the story of a battle between faith and knowledge. A defining moment in the scientific landscape of the twentieth century. ibid.
Irreducible complexity was a simple but provocative idea. It was based on the observation of natural machines whose parts are so inter-dependant that they could not have evolved. ibid.
Louisiana’s [1981] Creationism law, which requires creationism to be taught wherever the theory of evolution is explained, is unconstitutional, a US Court of Appeals ruled yesterday ... ‘The Act’s intended effect is to discredit evolution by counterbalancing its teaching at every turn with the teaching of creationism, a religious belief’, the US Court of Appeals said. San Francisco Chronicle article 9th July 1985
Seventy-two American winners of the Nobel Prize in science urged the Supreme Court yesterday to strike down a Louisiana law requiring public schools teaching evolution to also teach Creationism ... Creation-science is linked closely to a literal interpretation of the biblical book of Genesis, teaching that Earth and most of its life forms came into existence suddenly about 6,000 years ago ... The case before the High Court is Edwards v Aguillard. San Francisco Chronicle 19th August 1986
As a historical science, evolution is confirmed by the fact that so many independent lines of evidence converge to its single conclusion. Independent sets of data from geology, paleontology, botany, zoology, herpetology, entomology, biogeography, comparative anatomy and physiology, genetics and population genetics, and many other sciences each point to the conclusion that life evolved. This is a convergence of evidence. Creationists can demand ‘just one fossil transitional form’ that shows evolution. But evolution is not proved through a single fossil. It is proved through a convergence of fossils, along with a convergence of genetic comparisons between species, and a convergence of anatomical and physiological comparisons between species, and many other lines of inquiry. For creationists to disprove evolution, they need to unravel all these independent lines of evidence, as well as construct a rival theory that can explain them better than the theory of evolution. Michael Shermer, Why Darwin Matters
By studying fossils he exploded the myth of the Biblical creation. Alan Yentob, Leonardo: The Man Who Wanted to Know Everything, BBC 2011
The implication is overwhelming that even the Bible infers that before Adam And Eve there are already other creatures on the Earth, other humans on the Earth ... Where were these people that Cain were concerned about? Bill Cooper
At the very beginning it wasn’t just Adam who was created from the dust of the ground. Adam and his mate, his partner Lilith, were co-created from the same dust, the same ground at the same time, separate and equal. Unfortunately, Adam didn’t quite see it that way. And the time came when he began to insist that Lilith be subservient to him. ‘Lie beneath me, woman,’ he said. She refused. Kenneth Hanson, author Secrets of the Lost Bible
There are two separate accounts of the creation of the world, two versions of the covenant made between God and the patriarch Abraham, and even two distinct versions of Moses obtaining water from a rock. Mysteries of the Bible s3e7: Who Wrote the Bible? National Geographic 1996
The Hebrew story took hold over all others – why? Mysteries of the Bible s4e7: The Story of Creation, National Geographic 1997
The narrative often defies rational explanation. In verse 19 the sun is created on the fourth day, yet there was already light on the first day when God spoke of day and night. ibid.
Strangely, chapter two, the events are repeated but in a different order and with a dramatic shift in emphasis. ibid.
It’s a big of a muddle – the Creation story. Dr Robert Beckford, Who Wrote the Bible? Channel 4 2004
Creationism ... Nothing but bastardisation and butchery of biology ... In short Creationism: they’re lunacy. Why I Am No Longer a Christian
Christian: God created the Earth six thousand years ago ... Dinosaurs and human beings lived on the Earth at the same time.
Tony: What? Like the Flintstones? The Sopranos s6e4: The Fleshy Part of the Thigh starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, HBO 2006
It’s the miracle of creation, Seven. Doesn’t that excite you? Star Trek: Voyager s7e7: Body & Soul, Doctor with petri dish
We know now that none of these are the product of creation, that each one, each individual, is a self-made individual. Jonathan Miller
Only because the people see
So much in land and sky
For which they do not know the cause,
They think Divinities are working there.
If they could but see that
Nothing can be created from nothing,
Then they would advance one more step
Toward the answer that they seek:
Those eternal elements became
Everything that is,
Without interference from Gods. Lucretius, On the Nature of Things
Is the world created or uncreated? That is the first question. Plato, Timaeus
53,101. Those pesky Creationists are at it again ... Unfortunately, the facts point toward evolution. These ass-holes don’t even really know what the word Theory means in a scientific context. Penn & Teller, Bullshit! s1e8: Creationism, Showtime 2003
You ever noticed how people who believe in Creationism look really unevolved? You ever noticed that? Eyes real close together, eyebrow ridges, big furry hands and feet. ‘I believe God created me in one day’. Yeah, looks like He rushed it. Bill Hicks
A subject for a great poet would be God’s boredom after the seventh day of creation. Friedrich Nietzsche
Creation is only the projection into form of that which already exists. Bhagavad Gita
From the great morning of the world when first God dawned on Chaos. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonais, 1821
An’ there began a long digression
About the lords o’ the creation. Robert Burns
Had I been present at the Creation I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe. Alphonso X, The Wise
What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world. Albert Einstein, to Ernst Straus
Creation roots us in the wonder of our own drama. The children of a marvellous utterly mysterious act of giving, gifted with the marvellous: ourselves. What a beginning! Howard Jacobson, The Bible: A History, Channel 4 2010