Should a man in his position, where he can influence so many inpressionable minds, amongst the viewers of Newsnight...

[sandyRoe]

...not be more circumspect in his utterances?

http://uk.tv.yahoo.co...aily-tv-round-up.html

[jake-the-peg]

Newsnight is not Blue Peter

I doubt many impressionable minds watch it

Quite the reverse I'd say

[jomifl]

No more so than the average bishop.

[Baldric]

He's as entitled to his opinion as anyone else, and as jtp said there are probably not too many impressionable minds watching Newsnight.

[douglas9401]

Perhaps. It seems he's to be hauled before a burning bush and talking snake to answer for his transgression.
Those who know about these things say that if found guilty he may be sentenced to wander the desert for forty days and forty nights enduring all that that may entail.

Or

Possibly.

[sandyRoe]

I wouldn't want to go as far as that, Douglas. An appearance before an ecclesiastical court where he would have an opportunity to recant his ill-considered words would be enough.

[douglas9401]

Maybe Sandy, but I think my version is the more likely.

[Davethedog]

Why? It is his opnion, should he not be allowed to say it? Evet week we are subjected to people on any given number of subjects who say such and such is rubbish. If I were to say that Justin Bieber is a waste of space and his music is appaling. I would offend millions of teenage girls.

This is an over reaction by religion, yet again, while they are allowed to spout in every aspect of the media, their bigoted views on, say, same sex marriage Paxman is supposed to be censored.

We need more honesty not less.

[Khandro]

'Hogwash' is rather an unnecessary expletive, but surely nobody treats the Book of Genesis as being literally true, and anyway I thought Paxo was a Jew; the O.T. is his book isn't it?

[AB Editor]

Whoever picked the picture out for the story has certainly earned their wage today.

[sandyRoe]

Could it be, despite his words, he's looking to see if there's a thunderbolt in the offing?

[AB Editor]

To me it looks exactly like the face he'd pull if the story was being discussed in front of him.

[jomifl]

Khandro, can you justify any of your last statement?

[Zeuhl]

I don't think Jezzer is Jewish.

wiki <<his mother, Joan McKay (née Dickson), born 1920, was a housewife, and his father, Arthur Keith Paxman, worked in industry.[5][6] Paxman is the eldest of four children and has two brothers, one of whom, Giles, is the British Ambassador to Spain (having previously been ambassador to Mexico), and a sister, Jenny, a producer at BBC Radio.

Paxman was the subject in January 2006 of an episode of the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?.[5] The documentary concluded him to be descended from one Roger Packsman, a 14th century politician from Suffolk who had changed his name to Paxman (man of peace, "Pax" translates from Latin as peace) to impress "the electorate." >>

[naomi24]

What absolute tosh! I agree with him. It is hogwash – at least the generally accepted interpretation of it is hogwash. It’s a sorry day when a man is criticised for telling the truth, but with political correctness abounding, and society suffering from that crippling malady called ‘offence’, that seems to be becoming the norm.

//surely nobody treats the Book of Genesis as being literally true//

Unfortunately many do.

[Prudie]

I can't see the link at the moment but Paxman can do no wrong in my eyes.

[Khandro]

Sorry, I'm mixing him up with someone else.

[modeller]

Would you say that this is another way of saying Hogwash.
According to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams: "[For] most of the history of Christianity there's been an awareness that a belief that everything depends on the creative act of God, is quite compatible with a degree of uncertainty or latitude about how precisely that unfolds in creative time."[5]

[Khandro]

^^ No, but it sounds like you do.

[jomifl]

Modeller, I think that means 'I will agree with anyone if challenged'

[modeller]

Frankly I don't know what on earth he's talking about .
What's Creative Time supposed to mean ?

I saw the interview and that was his answer when he was asked if we should believe in the literal truth of Genesis.