I have been a fan of comedian and satirist Steven Colbert since he began doing segments on “The Daily Show” such as “The Week in God.” No religion or religious figure was above Colbert’s barbs. That certainly hasn’t changed since he started his own show, “The Colbert Report.” I have been waiting for the chance to blog about him here and last night’s episode finally gave me a perfect opportunity. Colbert interviewed Kenneth Miller, a professor at Brown University, to discuss, as only Colbert can, the issue of evolution vs. intelligent design. Miller’s first argument for believing in evolution–Darwinism? Big Bang theory? Nope. Flu shots. According to Miller, “Anyone who had a flu shot this year should sign a statement saying they believe in evolution.” Why? Because, Miller argues, the flu virus changes or evolves creating new strains every year (thus a need for a new shot every year ), so therefore it is safe to assume humans have evolved or changed from apes to who we are now.

While this argument was just one of several intentionally ( I think!) ridiculous arguments, it was interesting to me that both Colbert and Miller identified themselves as Catholics, and in Miller’s case, he vehemently proclaims that being a Catholic does not get in the way of believing in evolution. In fact, Miller states that he actually believes in a bigger God than those of us who believe in intelligent design, and he actually writes about this very topics on his very interesting website. At any rate, I wish all pop-culture-war debates were as funny, lively, and entertaining as this one. But for the record, Mr. Miller, I have had a flu shot, and I am still not signing any paper, okay?