TV has a great night, Tuesday!

Not the usual prime time network fare, of course (although the Amazing Race had potential, until the opossum reappeared on my front porch trying to tear apart something to get at the remaining cat food -- more about that in another blog, perhaps). No, the best moments I saw on air last night happened during "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno and in FOX channel's series about an FBI agent and a forensic anthropologist, "Bones".

Chronologically speaking, "Bones" aired first, but I had taped it so I could watch "NCIS" (cuz Mark Harmon is soooooo much hotter than he was when he was young, and cuz it's a cool show, and I wanna be Abbs when I grow up). Therefore, I watched Leno first, & caught "Bones" this morning in the wee hours, when I was awakened by indoor kitties digging to get under the blankets on my bed.

So, first to Leno: He cited the recent poll which indicated that more Iranians have a positive outlook on their future than do Americans, "which just shows you that they don't read the New York Times over there."

What a lovely zinger, all the better for its accuracy.

Then (and, more importantly, to me), on "Bones", a moment of astonishing openness about differing beliefs about Christmas. David Boreanaz's character, Agent Booth, faces down "Bones" -- Temperance Brennan (played by Emily Deschanel)-- over her refusal to accept the spirit of Christmas, and, indeed, her adamant atheism. They had been exposed to spores of a potentially lethal lung fungus, been put into quarantine, and had been given a specialized antifungal medication as treatment... just in case. After her statement debunking the birthdate story of the Baby Jesus, Booth takes her to task for her unwillingness to accept "truth over facts", saying, effectively, "You take a drug because of spores you aren't sure you have. Why can't you apply the same kind of trust elsewhere?" as he points upward.

The episode then moves to a session around a table, where each other character (all but one with strong scientific backgrounds, and all of them über-geeks in their own ways) explains his perspective on faith -- even the boss, a respected archaeologist, is a deacon at his church. And, the youngest one in the lab admits that, while he's mostly an atheist, if you ask his mother, he's a Lutheran. Everybody has an openness (except Bones, who has other issues) about the unknown and, as yet, unprovable.

At long last, some perspective on faith's place among scientists!

That's not to say that faith belongs in the sciences -- science is a method, after all, to prove hypotheses. It doesn't do, to come up with a theory and, halfway through the proof, write, "And then a miracle occurs..." (thank you, Gahan Wilson!). But it is permissible to believe in something you can't see with your own eyes. After all, I believe that Europe exists for some reason... I take the word of educated, experienced others. Isn't that what faith is, too?

So, huzzah! for "Bones", and thank you Jay Leno for making it possible for me to face Wednesday with a smile!