Perambulation

I've been walking about five times per week over the last month or so. It isn't making the encouraging immediate difference in my shape that my gym membership wrought last summer, but it feels good. For now, that's good enough. I might add some weight conditioning back in eventually.

Last night, Stephen Colbert asked a guest, "You believe in evolution?" His guest replied that he did, and Stephen said, in his inimitable style, "That makes one of us." It got some laughs, including mine. But his question came back to mind as I was walking this morning. It bothers me that we use the same phrasing to show our rational acceptance of a scientific theory as we do to show our emotional investment in a deity. When you ask me if I believe in a higher power, my answer tells you what I feel. But when you ask me if I believe in evolution, my answer tells you what scientific evidence has convinced me (and scientists everywhere) is true. Fact. I believe in evolution the same way I believe in gravity, in germs, that the earth is round. They are all supported by quantitative evidence. Religious people might feel they've seen evidence that there is a higher power, but there isn't any evidence that measures up to scientific standards.

Before Colbert, we watched "Serenity" again. Great movie. I watched the opening scene on the ship three times. It is a masterpiece of camera work, a single-camera perambulation through Serenity, with screen time for each member of the crew. Brilliant.