Living things do need cholesterol. Our steroidal hormones are based on it, and our cell membranes need it.

That's an interesting point on the correlation vs. cause-and-effect. There are too many people who don't differentiate between the two very well, and some of them are authors of published studies.

That said, I'm betting that Cholesterol is just like all those other things that our body absolutely needs, yet too much of which is bad for us. Things like water and oxygen...