And thus it all began.

So this is how it starts. Late one winter evening, in a living room far, far away, a middle aged man feels his brain slowly turn brittle with exasperation. The question you may well ask is why would this happen here and now? Did I just read another Global Warming denier's contribution to the further stupefying of the general public? Was it a 9/11 Truther's cries of despair that the world still doubts their conspiracy theories? Or was it a creationist's efforts to turn back science a few thousand years?

No, it was season 1, episode 8 of CSI NY. Yes, its sad but true, I watch all three of the CSI shows. Let me assure you that I in no way view these shows as documentaries and I'm very aware that the bulk of what happens in them should have the label 'For entertainment purposes only, please don't confuse with real forensics' permanently plastered on the bottom of the screen. What pushed me over the edge tonight was a scene that is played out in all three of the CSI shows at one time or another, where one of the main stars will happen upon a crime scene in a church. Then, with no-one else present, they will either drop to one knee for a quick prayer or will 'cross' themselves.

I find it hard to express the exasperation I feel whenever I watch one of these scenes. These are characters who spend half of their collective dialogues telling each other "...always follow the evidence!" Yet it seems that each and every one of them is religious. Religious. If at this point you are not predicting where I'm going with this then you may be reading the wrong blog. How in the hell can any rational, logical person get from 'always following the evidence' to having religious beliefs? Religion proudly touts its main virtue as faith. Faith is belief, in the absence of evidence. (Throughout recorded history, religions of all sorts have claimed to have the ultimate knowledge of where we came from, who we are and where we are going; and in all of those thousands of years they have provided a grand total of zero evidence. But I won't get into that right now.)

Yes, yes, CSI is just a fictional TV show for the masses; but these shows are not in the same puerile genre as shows such as 'Touched by an Angel" or "First Edition", where the supernaturalist, woo woo loving audience get to feed their delusions and go to bed each night thinking they've just seen a documentary. CSI and other similar shows are pitched at a slightly higher functioning group (as well as the odd masochist like me) who are looking for something a little more intellectually challenging. I will now blunder my way towards the loosely targeted point I'm trying to get at. The audience for shows like this would be a great target to pitch science at. But instead of just concentrating on the scientific side of things, the producers/writers feel obliged to throw in odd little pieces of religious nonsense. I'm very aware that these lines are added deliberately to appease their target audience primarily in the United States, but I can't help feeling that its a lost opportunity to wean people away from the supernatural towards rationality.