Jeremy, Jeremy

It looks like people are getting their knickers in a twist about comments made by Jeremy Paxman about the stupidity of literally believing the Old Testament. During a recent interview with Richard Dawkins Paxman clearly tried to bait Dawkins by offering him the chance to agree with the comment that people who believed in a literal OT "hogwash" were "stupid" - it's not clear if this is Paxmans' own view but to any sane observer it was obvious that he was using such comments as a device to illicit a strong response and make the interview more lively, as he always does. Following continued complaints by "Christians" (unnamed) the BBC Trust editorial standards committee has now ruled that Paxman "went too far". It's not clear to me why stating the bleeding obvious or even an uncontroversial personal opinion on this topic would be deemed "too far". This is a very odd ruling, what's the point of a current affairs program that specialises in robust cross-examination of guests if no one risks offence? Should we respect stupid opinions and tip-toe around them?

If the complainants who are accused of holding such "stupid opinions" would like to step out from behind their shield of tradition and unconditional respect and actually present a case for why believing the Earth is only 6000 years old and that we are all descended from a bloke called Noah who had a knack for building boats, isn't stupid, I'm sure Paxman would have a field-day..