Dude, stick to football

Gregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback is a great read, one I look forward to every week. It helped to rekindle my childhood affection for the game. The only parts of it that I have never liked were the odd asides on politics, science, and religion, jammed in amongst the haiku and “It’s a blitz! Seven gentlemen cross the line. 16-yard completion”

Sadly, Easterbrook’s new New Republic blog consists entirely of these asides—indeed, it seems to consist partly of the very same asides, word for word, that are in the weekly TMQ column. And out of the cushy football context, it becomes clear how very silly Easterbrook’s writing on politics, science, and religion can be.

Combining missing dark matter and missing dark energy, science can’t so much as locate 90 percent of the universe! Bear this in mind, as well, when you’re tempted to think we “know” there is no nonmaterial world. An energy strong enough to push the entire universe is pulsing through your body right now; you can’t feel it, and science has no idea how it works or where it originates. How many other nonmaterial forces might there be?

Unexplained does not mean unexplainable. Undiscovered is not unknowable. Nonmaterial forces can’t push anything—they are non-material! Does Easterbrook think that the electron didn’t exist back when we didn’t know why rubbing your slippers on the carpet makes your hair stand on end?

Gentle reader, bear this in mind when you seek to use the current state of scientific knowledge as evidence for your religious beliefs: one, scientific knowledge is constantly changing, and makes a bad hook on which to hang a proof for the ages; two, faith shouldn’t require proof—if it does, it can hardly be called faith, can it? And three, chances are, you are going to look as silly as a blitz on third and long.

Filed under: culture/sports