Flights

EVIDENCE

I met some ichthyologists who were not at all bothered in their work by the fact that they were creationists. We were eating vegetable curries at the same table and we had a lot of time before our next flight. So we moved from the table to the bar, where a young man with eastern features and a ponytail was playing Eric Clapton’s hits on his guitar.

They were talking about how it was God who created their beautiful fish – all those trout, pike, turbot and flounder, along with all the evidence of their phylogenetic development. To complete the set of fish, which he called into existence on the third day, he also prepared their excavatable skeletons, their bold imprints in sandstone, their fossils.

‘To what end?’ I asked. ‘Why create this false evidence?’

They were ready for my doubts, so one of them answered:

‘Describing God and his intentions is like a fish trying to describe the water it swims in.’

Another added after a moment:

‘And its ichthyologist.’