A recent parable written by David Anderson echoes one of the first posts I made on this blog, namely "Can you Prove what you Believe?". Both deal with what could be termed "hyper-skepticism". Here's his parable (followed by his interpretation of it):

Does Richard Dawkins exist? – A parable

Of course, the author is not really denying Dawkins exists. But that's the whole point: Hyper-skepticism is often wielded by its proponents "only against things they dislike, whilst taking others for granted" (Anderson's wording). As I said in my "Can you Prove…" post: "This is a somewhat frivolous example. But it demonstrates that everyone believes things we can’t prove with 100% certainty and that we are quite right to do so."

(Thanks to Thinking Christian for the link.)

Further reading:

• Following the Evidence – Grek Koukl's article on the nature of evidence.
• The Evidence for Jesus – Can anything be proved 100%? Even if not, we should accept what is reasonably demonstrated by the evidence available.

The story is from last December:

"Moths drink the tears of sleeping birds"
A species of moth drinks tears from the eyes of sleeping birds using a fearsome proboscis shaped like a harpoon, scientists have revealed. … The team does not yet know whether the insect spits out an anaesthetic to dull the irritation. They also want to investigate whether, like their counterparts elsewhere, the Madagascan tear-drinkers are all males who get most of their nutrition from the tears.

Now, I'm not opposed to evolution per se, as IMHO theistic evolution is at least a possibility, even though there are numerous problems with macroevolution (for example, abiogenesis (generation of life from non-life), the fossil record, the evolution of sex, and evolutionary morality). But if macroevolution is true (few would contest microevolution) then I would tend to think that whatever explanation could be given for how these tear-drinking moths evolved would have to amount to a miracle. It is at least, as one blog commented, "weird", although I truly fail to see how "only evolution could produce" this phenomenon; unless a person's worldview considered evolution the only option, that is.

I was pointed to this video by a post on the PyroManiacs blog. It's called "Just Stop and Think", created by Francis Chan and a whole team of videographers and so on. Note that it's about 15mins long so only watch if you have time right now; if you don't, bookmark this link and watch it later. If you do have time, click below to watch the video online (QuickTime format):

56k: Just Stop and Think Video (Small)
Cable/DSL: Just Stop and Think Video (Medium)
T1/Fast LAN: Just Stop and Think Video (Large)

The reaction to the video in the PyroManiacs thread seems mixed, but generally positive. I thought the video was well-done, although it only presents part of the story; don't miss the Questions page on the same site.

Further reading:

• Story: "I hated Christians." – The story of the man who "upon hearing the word 'Jesus' would throw up".
• Jesus? I want to know more – Who is this 'Jesus' anyways? (He's probably not like you expect.)

The image comes from the CD A Better Place by Overflow. (I added the "You are here" text and the quote at the bottom, see the link for the original album cover). I purchased the CD based on its cover (and sale price heh), but it turned out to be a good buy. It has several great light-rockish songs; as one Amazon reviewer says, "Think Goo Goo Dolls with a Christian message".

But it was the cover image caught my eye as I was browsing the sale CD rack … perhaps to be a better metaphor, two penguins would be conversing, one who had never seen water (he had always lived on solid ice) and the other who had. No matter how well the latter explained what it was like to be in water, the former couldn't understand until he experienced it for himself … or something like that!

Further reading:

• What's so Special About Jesus? – Jesus compared with Buddha, Muhammad, Socrates and Zoroaster.
• Who is Jesus, really? – Lots to think about re who Jesus is.