Pondering the Box turtle

I was thinking about a lot of “misinformation” that’s out there.  Y’all know that I am Charlie, scourge of the vatniki, but did you know I have an interest in herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians)?  It’s true. 

While I’ve never been fond of terms like “disinformation” and “misinformation”, I do think that we have the obligation to, not only tell the truth, but, to get our facts right.

Which is odd, because I can’t stand “fact checkers”.  I guess that has more to do with feeling like I’m being treated like I’m too stupid to know how to, do a quick internet search.

I guess what spurred this on was box turtles.  Why box turtles?  Because…I like turtles!

Also, there’s this persistent myth that box turtles can’t swim.  I was trying to do some research on speciation in box turtles (as Wikpedia is no help, it simultaneously says the Three-toed box turtle is a subspecies of the Common box turtle, whilst, simultaneously holding that that Three-toeds are their own species. 
Well, which is it?  There’s good evidence that they’re not a subspecies of Common box turtle, but a subspecies of the Mexican box turtle, and they do look quite a like, so I believe it).  Anyway, I’m not going to share the science stuff here, because modern science is hard to read, because it’s very verbose.

Seriously, scientists, just give us the information.

Anyway, box turtles not only can swim, but DO swim, (BOX TURTLES IN WATER! (They NEED It)

Not helping, is some of the educational stuff up at Clarks Hill (a large manmade lake near where I live, labels it as a “box tortoise”, even though it’s in the Pond turtle family, seriously, even looking for images for this article, a few of the photos used the phrase “tortoise” for box turtles…)

Where I live in South Carolina, we have the Eastern box turtles.  Which may or may not be a subspecies of Common box turtle (The common box turtle is more likely a species complex than a species, I’d share an article about species complexes, but most of them don’t actually bother explaining what a species complex is, and neither will I)!

Anyway, all that is to say, that I’ve SEEN them swim.  You ain’t gonna argue with an eyewitness to the event.  You may argue with the reasons for the event.  You may tell me that I hallucinated those box turtles swimming.  You may even tell me that box turtles never existed, but, I know what I saw. 

And, what does this have to do with Christianity?

Think about the atheists that will say stuff like “Jesus never existed”, or the ones that acknowledge he did (I’d say, DOES), will say it was a group hallucination.

You know, the weird thing is, these people are telling me not to believe eyewitnesses to an event.  And some could be like, “well, there was no one that saw the resurrection”.  Okay, if you die, and no one saw you die, you still died. 

People saw the risen Christ.  It doesn’t matter so much that no one saw the resurrection (which is also a good song by the Industrial Metal band Fear Factory, sorry, it came on on Pandora whilst I was writing the article, Resurrection)

If people see your dead body after you die, even if they weren’t there to see you die, they still see evidence of your death. 

It’s like the “if a tree hears in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound”?

Well, yes, because of the way sound works.  Just because you don’t hear it, doesn’t mean the tree doesn’t make a sound. 

Since I haven’t referenced any scripture yet, I’ll reference myself referencing scripture (remember, I have more internal consistency than the Marvel movies).

The Resurrection really happened

Criterion of embarrassment

If Christ be not raised

How we know the gospels are reliable

Sometimes things go repeated, unchallenged, even in academia, and then that becomes the norm.  Sometimes it’s the other way around.  The challenge has already been answered, and people will insist that it isn’t.  And, much like a merry-go-round, it keeps going in circles.  Also, I leave you with this.

I LIKE TURTLES!

Adam Charles Hovey is the creator of the Catholicism, News, and Whatever community on Locals; Catholicism, News, and Whatever community

And the host of the weekly Bible study, “Coffee and Christianity; Coffee and Christianity