MiloCast

I was wandering around the bookstore this evening, and decided to cruise by the bible section. I read the entire old and new testaments when I was much younger, but I thought that maybe I should give it another good read. However, what I saw when I got to the bible section made me forget about buying.

First of all, there were so many bibles to choose from. There were NIV (New International Version) bibles, King James versions, study bibles, a “Catholic Version” bible, whatever the hell that is, and several more. The obvious question I have to ask is: If you claim the bible is the word of your god, your God, then which one, exactly, is the real one? I may have to pick up a few and compare some passages to see how heavy-handed the editing has been.

Apparently, “Christians,” in all their many forms, disagree more amongst themselves than some completely separate religions do — there are hundreds of different denominations of “Christian.” Wikipedia lists about 300 in their current article. So just to be clear — Christians believe that they have the one true religion which will get you into heaven. But they can’t even put together a consistent picture of what they believe, so they have to keep rebelling and breaking off into smaller and smaller groups, each of which is convinced that their particular blend is the “true faith.” Just silly.

Then there were some really funny ones. There were metal bibles. They had metal covers which were held shut by a magnet. The pages inside were normal paper. The metal bible came in shiny silver or camouflage cover. There was the “Duct Tape Bible,” which had a cover made of duct tape. Really. I’m not kidding. There was a bible with a pink leather cover. If you can’t make the content any better, at least you can package it to suit any taste.

Then there were the scary ones. Bibles for kids. Bibles for teaching in school. The one which I found completely horrifying was “Baby’s First Bible.” Wonderful — let’s make sure we put the fear of hell into them early so they don’t dare think for themselves.

So here we have one of the biggest faith groups in the world. The biggest in the United States for sure. So many of them go to great lengths to spread the word, and are in love with Jesus. Argue that there’s no evidence for their beliefs and you’ll get nowhere. They are convinced. Yet even among themselves they can’t agree on what they believe. Along with the bibles were many different books claiming to explain the bible, or to teach you how to read the bible, or similar things. Look: Before you go impeding stem cell research, vilifying gays, and murdering abortion doctors, at least understand what the hell you’re doing it for. That’s all I have to say on this mess. I’m done.

Today’s post is another podcast. This time my Santa Claus article. Just to clarify: I’m not saying that you should become anti-Santa. Have fun with it. Watch the classic Christmas movies. Just don’t tell the kids he’s real. Christmas is all about good times and people you care about.

Enjoy the audio.

The topic of evolution is a big deal in the news these days. In spite of the fact that we have known about the fact of evolution for generations, surprisingly few people seem to know a very basic piece of this story. So I’ll tell you something most people seem to never have heard. Evolution is proven. That is a known fact, as much as anything can be said to be a proven fact. We know that things have evolved, we have plenty of evidence, and no evidence has ever appeared which contradicts those facts. However, there is also the “theory of evolution.” This is different than the fact. The theory of evolution is the model of understanding developed by biologists to explain how evolution takes place. It describes the actual process that happens within the DNA, and explains how mutations, over time, change one species into something very different. If you wanted, you could say it’s our “best explanation so far.” Thus the use of the word “theory.”

It may seem confusing that we have both the fact of evolution and the theory of evolution, but the same thing applies to so many things we use each day. For example, did you know that to turn a motorcycle to the right, you have to steer to the left? Steering the front wheel toward the left causes the bike to lean to the right, so the bike goes right. It’s just a fact. Now, I’m sure there is some scientific theory which explains exactly how that works. I don’t understand it myself, but I don’t really need to in order to ride a motorcycle. The same goes for evolution. We look at things and see very clearly that one thing has evolved from another. We look at DNA in a human and a frog and see that the similarity is amazing. We look at human DNA and primate DNA, and we can see where they separate, just as we can look at the lineage of great danes and poodles and see how they came from the same ancestors and how long ago they stopped interbreeding.

So, people who claim that evolution is “only a theory” are either ignorant of some basic facts, or they’re covering them up in order to push their own agenda. And in either case, they are misrepresenting what the definition of “theory” is in scientific terms. It does not mean guess. You’ve all heard of Einstein’s “theory of relativity,” right? I never hear religious people dismissing it as “only a theory.” Just look it up on Google, and you’ll soon learn the definition of “theory” when it is used in science.

Remember, some words have multiple meanings, some ideas are confusing, and some facts are not self-evident. Truth is not always obvious. Keep this in mind, question what you “think” before you say you “know” it, and you’ll be well ahead of the game.