If you don’t watch CBS’ Young Sheldon, you should at least check out this clip in which the main character challenged a pastor from the pews. It was the equivalent of a skeptic holding up a “Citation Needed” sign during a sermon.
PASTOR JEFF: Sometimes, people say to me, “Pastor Jeff, how do you know there’s a God?” And I say it’s simple math. God either exists or He doesn’t. So let’s be cynical. Worst case scenario, there’s a 50/50 chance! And I like those odds!
SHELDON: That’s wrong.
MARY: [To Sheldon] Shelly, put your hand down! [To Pastor Jeff] Sorry, please continue!
PASTOR JEFF: It’s okay, Mary. It’s Sheldon, right?
SHELDON: Yes, sir.
PASTOR JEFF: Well, Sheldon, why don’t you come on up here and tell me how I’m wrong?
MARY/SHELDON [Simultaneously]: NO!/Okay!
MEEMAW [to Mary]: Sheldon’s gonna eat him alive…
PASTOR JEFF: So, you were sayin’?
SHELDON: You’ve confused possibilities with probabilities. According to your analogy, when I go home, I might find a million dollars on my bed or I might not. In what universe is that 50/50?
PASTOR JEFF: So what do you think the odds are that God exists?
SHELDON: I think there’s zero. I believe in science.
PASTOR JEFF: So you don’t think science and religion can go hand in hand?
SHELDON: Science is facts. Religion is faith. I prefer facts.
PASTOR JEFF: I understand that. Here’s a cool fact for you: A lot of famous scientists believed in God. Isaac Newton. Albert Einstein. Even Charles Darwin.
SHELDON: So Darwin’s right about God and wrong about evolution?
PASTOR JEFF: Now you’re getting it! Let’s give it up for Sheldon, everybody! What a good sport…
SHELDON [Voiceover]: But I wasn’t a good sport. At that moment, I vowed to come back the following Sunday and destroy Pastor Jeff.
I would’ve watched the rest of that debate…
Here’s what the following week in church looked like:
PASTOR JEFF: Now everybody knows on the First Day of Creation, God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light! And when God saw that light, He knew it was good…
[Sheldon raises hand]
… yes, Sheldon?
SHELDON: You said He didn’t create the Sun until Day 4.
PASTOR JEFF: … Yeah.
SHELDON: So how could there be light the first three days?
PASTOR JEFF: … God is light.
SHELDON: So God’s a photon?
PASTOR JEFF: … God’s what made photons possible.
SHELDON: And what day did He do that?
PASTOR JEFF: I would think Day One.
At this point, Sheldon’s family begins talking quietly about the best way to leave the church and put an end to this debate.
PASTOR JEFF: … Because the First Day had just begun!
SHELDON: So before the Big Bang?
PASTOR JEFF: There was no Big Bang! There was only The Word!
SHELDON: Was the word “Kaboom”?
The whole show should just be Sheldon and the Pastor. I would watch that.
(Thanks to Taylor for the link)