Andy Borgmann's Blog

I am pretty sure hell has frozen over. Where do I get this profound theological revelation from. The Colbert Report. The other night, Ted Daeschler of the Center for Systematic Biology & Evolution was Stephen's guest. Now Mr. Daeschler seemed like a nice guy, in fact, he seemed like a genius. Very smart, definitely knew what he was talking about. Except about halfway through his conversation he made a startling comment at passing regarding the fact of evolution.

Now I should take a moment here to say that I am not anti-evolution. I am not totally sure I buy it as it was spoon fed in high school, however, I have no faith dilemma with the concept of evolution. God could have very easily decided to create the world over billions of years through the process of evolution. Genesis should hardly be seen as a scientific explanation of creation, which in my mind leaves the door open for possible scientific explanations to show us the majesty of God the Creator.

But here's my problem. Evolution is not a fact. It isn't even a law. It is a theory. Now theories are based on facts, which is what separates it from a hypothesis. However, theories, by definition are not facts, or else, we would call them facts.

So you might be asking, ok Andy, why has hell frozen over? People have been claiming the truth about evolution for years. Right, but it hit me while watching The Colbert Report that I think scientists have more faith than Christians. Sure, it isn't a faith in Jesus Christ, but it is a faith nonetheless. Faith is defined as being certain of what we do not see. Now I know many Christians who profess to have faith, but their belief in God hardly has an unfailing certainty day after day (and that's ok, God lets us doubt). But when you look at the facts and the "gaps" that make up the theory of evolution, there is far more uncertainty than certainty. Yet, scientists like Mr. (Dr.?) Daeschler speak with absolute certainty in the factual belief that evolution is true, thus it has led me to believe that science is more faithful than religion.

My new favorite word is truthiness, which I have to also give credit to Stephen Colbert for inventing (despite attempts of the liberal media to take the credit away from him ;-). But Stephen defines truthiness (and I am paraphrasing) as the disregard of fact for what "feels" true. And that is why Mr. Daeschler's statements speak to the truthiness of evolution.