How To Be An Agnostic
millipede that can kill a baby, or the exquisite fi lm of running
ants that was gripping. There was a profound sense of awe that
pervaded the programmes. This led naturally – and without the
sentimental anthropomorphisms that are so easy to read into
more cuddly creatures – to the contemplation, fi rst, of the insig-
nifi cance of human beings in relationship to the insect world,
and second to a more profound appreciation of the value of
these creatures than a strictly scientifi c analysis allows.
Attenborough pointed out not just that invertebrates were the
fi rst creatures to colonise the land. Nor that they established the
foundations of the land’s ecosystems and were able to transcend
the limitations of their small size by banding together in huge
communities of millions. He said that if the invertebrates were
to disappear today, the land’s ecosystems would unavoidably,
and rapidly, collapse. If human beings and all other back-boned
animals similarly vanished, the world would continue without
faltering. He was also amazed at the behaviour they caught on
fi lm:
I think the thing that surprises you is that when you watch
invertebrates normally, say spiders, you think, ‘well, they’re
just spiders and mechanical little creatures’. But when you
start to fi lm them, you discover that they have individual
personalities. I mean, you can watch spiders of the same
species, and some are lazy, some are hard working, some
don’t like light. They all have personalities, there’s no doubt
about it.That is a wonderful thing to say of such creatures. It also leads
Attenborough to agnosticism. He doesn’t think there’s a divine
force that designed the system of natural selection. But he
has talked about looking inside a termite hill, and watching a
million bugs toiling away, each at their own task.
I know perfectly well that they can’t see me because they are
blind... And I sometimes think that maybe we’re a bit like