In my previous blog, I argued that the new BBC Evolution series lets down its audience by presenting a simple dichotomy between God and evolution. The presenter, Chris Packham, makes statements of atheistic presuppositions as if they were the findings of modern science. I argued that the series becomes incoherent as he finds himself ascribing purpose and agency to a process that he also describes as “blind”.
Now I will examine in detail the descriptions and explanations of the origin of life and LUCA (“last universal common ancestor”) in Episode 1 of the series. As introduced in my first post, I will be asking: (1) How scientifically accurate is it? and (2) How well does it fulfil the public service obligations of the BBC? This post will address the first question.
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