What I Learned While Watching TV with My Dad

Don't.

That is, don't watch television with my dad. Especially not a program on the Discovery Channel that you've been waiting to see for a week. If this program has anything to do with scientific theory or evolution, you will not get a chance to enjoy it.

I saw a commercial last week for Walking with Cavemen, a documentary on the evolution of homonids over the past 3.5 million years. It looked cool, so I made a mental note to watch it on Sunday the 15th, ten o'clock (nine o'clock Central). My dad was in the room when I changed the channel, so I knew I was gonna catch some flak. If it's not a rodeo, a horserace, or a western, my dad doesn't like it. But he surprisingly didn't leave the room. He sat down and prepared to watch it with me. I'd soon wish that he'd done otherwise.

As soon as the narration started, he turned to me and said, "This is one of those things where they try to find the 'missing link' isn't it?" I just nodded and continued to watch the TV. But throughout the whole show, my dad had many words of wisdom to share. Some of the highlights:

• "You know, they always tell you there's a 'missing link' somewhere, but they've never found it . . . because it doesn't exist!"
• "I think cavemen might have looked like monkeys, but that doesn't mean that man came from monkeys."
• "All these scientists just get together and come up with an idea; they don't have any proof!"

You see, my dad is one of those Christians that mistakenly believes that all science is evil and somehow undermines and discredits his beliefs. Personally, when I was a Christian, I believed that Christianity and Evolution can go hand-in-hand; Evolution explaining the method and Christianity explaining the purpose of why we exist. I could never understand why people believed that belief in one excluded belief in the other. Why must science contradict religion, and vice versa? And now that I'm not a Christian anymore, I see that modern science doesn't contradict religion.

Because Modern Science is a religion. Science claims to be the pursuit of Truth. This is also true for every religion, from Buddists being reincarnated until they realize the ultimate truth and reach Nirvana, to Christians who believe that Jesus their savior is, in his own words, "the way, the Truth, and the light." Some would say that, unlike other religions, Science does not take anything on faith, that it must have evidence. But how is believing a hypothesis based on a theory based on postulate not taking something on faith? The truth is that Science can do no better than any religion at explaining the Creation, the End of the World, or anything in between. Modern Science does not have any more valid of an answer as to why we are here than any belief, religion, or crack-pot cult. In the end, it's all just a matter of believing in something -- anything -- to get you through the day without having to constantly question your existance.