Dragons vs. FoxNews. Who is the bigger joke?

A guy called into Opie & Anthony (heretofore known only as O&A) this morning and politely asked them to stop using the Lord’s name in vain. Now, anyone that’s listened to their show, or has any knowledge about them, can probably guess where this went. They proceeded to goad him into a lengthy argument over science vs. religion. (I believe it started when Anthony referred to Jesus as ‘the zombie god’.)

The caller was a very rare Catholic extremist. They don’t recognize the ‘new church’, any pope after Pius XII (died in 1958), or believe in science. In fact, he constantly referred to scientists as ‘scientist priests’; an obvious attempt to bring science to the same faith-based level of religion. The entire basis of his argument against science was “have you ever personally seen someone do that?” He believes the Earth is only 6000 years old, because that’s as far back as written records go. His counter-argument to carbon dating of rocks in the millions of years was “have you done the carbon dating yourself?” Even better was his answer to the presence of dinosaur bones. Clearly dinosaurs weren’t in the bible. If the Earth is really only 6000 years old, how does one explain all those bones we’re digging up?! Dragons. Those bones are nothing more than dragon bones from as recent as the middle ages. Never mind the fact that dragons are nowhere to be found in the bible, nowhere to be found now, and really were only mentioned in Medieval times. And even then they were really only in stories that were loosely based on actual history. Nothing gets a morning started better than someone claiming that the prehistoric bones we find are really dragon bones. Simply awesome. And really, how can you listen to someone and even attempt to believe what they have to say after they claimed dragons were not only real, but were the true source of what we call “dinosaur bones”? I want dragons to be real as much as the next guy, but come on.

Regardless, the entire thing got me thinking about the faith we do put in scientist. Science isn’t a religion, but we are trusting people we don’t know that are doing experiments and research we can’t understand. Kind of like going to the doctor. I can’t actually interpret the results from my blood work. I don’t know what a healthy heart sounds like. I’m just semi-blindly trusting the person that’s telling me what it all means. A stretch to say it, but not that dissimilar from religion. The main difference is that at the very core, someone can prove the basis of the scientific facts. I can find a scientist who can show me the equipment and how it works and let me prove these things myself.

No one can definitely prove the existence of God or any of the miracles that are written in the bible. It all needs to be taken by faith and faith alone. I choose to make that leap of faith, but I recognize that for what it is. I can never go to a church and tell a priest to prove any of it to me. All they have is a collection of writings that were chosen by some people hundreds of years ago to be the best representation of the religion.

FoxNews in Boston is trying to get me to freak out. Not only do they practice rampant shock journalism in order to get viewers, not only do they use scare tactics to get viewers, but now they are putting on segments that aren’t even news. When you start discussing and recapping American Idol during your “news” broadcast, you’ve officially crossed a line. The term ‘newsertainment’ has never been more accurate. It sickens me to think that people are still using these same broadcasters as their main source of information on world events! But why wouldn’t I believe the 5 minute reporting on the Iraq conflict when it’s presented immediately after a 15 minute piece on the favorite foods of each Idol contestant?! I’m sure there aren’t any biases and the reporting must be top-notch. It’s disgusting.