We’ve read all of the stories about Curt Schillng’s recovery from cancer and other attendant maladies. And they have been uplifting and encouraging. But maybe the most uplifting and encouraging evidence of Schilling’s recovery came last night when we learned that, finally, he is back to his old self, 100%.
How do we know this? Because he spent the night being bullheaded and annoying on the Internet.
You see, Schilling spent a great deal of time on Twitter last night arguing against the Theory of Evolution. Deadspin summarizes it here, but you can go to Twitter and see it in real time too. It’s quite a thing.
The main thrust of his argument were the old chestnuts about their being gaps in the fossil record and no real time evidence of evolution that we, as lay persons, have witnessed. No fossil of, say, a fish with legs like that “Darwin” sticker people put on the back of their Subarus. And no ape born in, like, the 1970s, which spontaneously turned into a human in 1986 or whatever. I didn’t see the entirety of his interactions with his followers, but I do hope at least one of them sent him a link explaining why that is pure, uncut and unadulterated hooey.
It used to always irk me when someone carried on like this. And yes, part of me is still a tad troubled by the fact that a guy who is paid to be an analyst has demonstrated a tendency to espouse his gut-held beliefs rather than actually deal with the evidence available that better-explains a phenomenon. I presume next year Schilling will be in the booth for Sunday Night Baseball and I wouldn’t bet even a nickel on him not arguing in favor of some unprovable folk wisdom about hitting or pitching rather than actually breaking down what happened objectively.
But for the most part I just smile at this sort of thing. The beauty of science, it has been said, is that it does not require that one believe in it to be true. Not even Curt Schilling, who is free to believe what he wants to believe, even if it’s wrong on just about every possible level. And even if that which he disbelieves played a crucial role in his ability to be here today disbelieving it.
Because if he’s doing that, man, we KNOW the old Curt Schilling is back. And however annoying that may be in the moment, I sleep better at night knowing that he is out there, somewhere, driving people absolutely nuts.
