This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures.

This lecture in the series The Language of the Genes, given by Steve Jones, was originally broadcast in 1991.

American bird watchers know that the common sparrow, the same bird that hops around in our own gardens,

has a bigger body and shorter legs in the north than in the south of the United States.

The same is true for sparrows in northern and southern Europe.

Creationists, and there are more than a hundred million of them in America,

see in this the deity arranging things so that each species fits into the economy of nature,

cold places wherever they are,

meriting a subtle change in God's plan.

If there is a plan, it seems to work in the same way for humans.

People from the far north have shorter arms and legs

and more compact bodies than those from the tropics.

That is why Olympic running records tumbled after Kenyans with

their long legs began to take part. To philosophers before Darwin, the ability of Africans to cope

with heat and Eskimos with cold was excellent evidence for divine action. The creator had seen

to it that each people suited their homeland,

showing just what a wonderful designer he was.

Humans were perfect, created in God's image.

As the 19th century cleric, William Paley argued,

if one found a watch beautifully designed,

then one must accept the existence of a watchmaker.

The perfection of humanity proved in the same way that there was a god.

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