Hooray! Creationist evilness is not just brainwashing children in the US, it’s in the Netherlands too!
Oh wait. That sucks. Sorry, Nederlanders.
The latest outrage from fundamentalist reality-deniers comes to us from the Evangelische Omroep, or Evangelical Broadcasters, a Dutch TV broadcaster of fundamentalist religious propaganda content. Not content to simply lie about science the way creationists do in America, they have gone on to the next (il)logical step: editing out the bits they don’t like.
David Attenborough is responsible for some of the best nature documentaries of all time. EO bought the rights to broadcast his excellent show, “Life of Mammals” (I’ve seen some of it, and, as is always the case, it’s just top of the line stuff). But of course, the documentary makes all sorts of horrifying references to evolution, so the EO decided to simply re-edit the show. They excised whole chunks, put up different titles, and basically destroyed any relevance to what the show is about: reality.
YouTube user Obdurodon has put up some great side-by-side comparisons of what the show originally was compared to what the EO did to it:
This, to me, truly atrocious. Obdurodon calls it censorship, but I think it’s worse than that: censorship is keeping people from speaking. This is far more evil: it’s changing what Attenborough said.
I guess, for creationists, the Ninth Commandment is optional.
Interestingly, the EO is a public broadcasting company, which means things must be quite different over there than they are here. Unfortunately, given current circumstances here in the States, they aren’t different enough.
I also wonder about the BBC; they must have known they were selling their show to a group of far-right fundamentalists. The EO has a long history of distorting the truth.
Somewhere down the line, when creationists actively lie and distort the truth, there must be gatekeepers to staunch the flow (or more appropriately, put their finger in the dike). Where was the BBC during this?
Remember: it’s up to us to air garbage like this out. The more people who know about these typical creationist tactics, the better off we’ll be. Creationism, like the noisome growth found under rocks, wilts in the daylight.
This story is all over the web, and I don’t have enough hats to tip right now. But you can find more here. I originally got an email about it which I have since lost (sorry, anonymous BABloggee!) from BA Blogee Stuart Lowe, and read it on Astronomy Blog, too.
