Thinking Out Faith
Incidental Writings on Books, Ideas, Theology and Culture

Thursday, May 03, 2007

The Sopranos: Science & the Meaning of Life

In season 6, episode 4 of The Sopranos, Tony's in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound and the resulting surgery. He's been reading a kid's book on dinosaurs, the only reading material around, when he turns to his nephew Christopher, and says, "Get this. It says here if the history of the planet was represented by the empire state building, the time that human beings have been on earth would only be a postage stamp at the very top. You realize how insignificant that makes us."

Christopher replies matter of factly, "I don't feel that way" gets up and walks away.

What a humorous lesson on how to elegantly deal with the tendency of some scientists and scholars to overinterpret the facts. Beautiful.

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