Why doesn’t Sir David Attenborough give credit to God?

‘When Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things.

‘But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind.

‘And [I ask them], “Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you also say is an all- merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child’s eyeball? Because that doesn’t seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy.”’¹

Andrew Denton: ‘When you see this sort of stuff, do you ever get a sense of God’s pattern?’

Sir David Attenborough: ‘Well, if you ask…about that, then you see remarkable things like that earwig and you also see all very beautiful things like hummingbirds, orchids, and so on. But you also ought to think of the other, less attractive things. You ought to think of tapeworms.

‘You ought to think of … well, think of a parasitic worm that lives only in the eyeballs of human beings, boring its way through them, in West Africa, for example, where it's common, turning people blind.

‘So if you say, “I believe that God designed and created and brought into existence every single species that exists,” then you've also got to say, “Well, he, at some stage, decided to bring into existence a worm that's going to turn people blind.” Now, I find that very difficult to reconcile with notions about a merciful God.

‘And I certainly find it difficult to believe that a God — superhuman, supreme power — would actually do that.’²

Note:

1. This is a theological argument rather than a scientific argument — it is about what a god supposedly would or would not do rather than about the scientific evidence. It’s ironic that Attenborough claims that the Intelligent Design Movement is about theology while evolution is about science, yet his main anti-ID argument is theological rather than scientific!
2. Attenborough ignores the Fall, as do most such critics; God did NOT design things this way, but they became this way after sin entered the world — see Death and Suffering Questions and Answers.
3. The ID movement has problems answering this type of argument because they lack a history, since they refuse to invoke the Bible with its teaching of the Fall (and Flood).
4. Attenborough sets up a straw man about god creating every single species; rather he created separate kinds that diversified and even speciated — see Speciation Questions and Answers.
5. Attenborough is wrong anyway, because the worm doesn't need to bore through a child's eye. Indeed, if it lands there, it can't even complete its life cycle. But there are numerous other arguments about pathogens and predators that he could have used.

References

1. Buchanan, M, Wild, Wild Life, Sydney Morning Herald, The Guide, p. 6, 24 March 2003.
2. Sir David Attenborough interviewed by Andrew Denton, Enough Rope (ABC), Episode 28, broadcast 22 September 2003.