Talk radio trivia, Flintstones and the Good Book

[Genesis is a product of] ... "Bronze Age desert tribesmen."

-- Richard Dawkins, author,

"The Greatest Show on Earth," 2009.

On my way home from work, as I -- as do so many others -- try to unwind, I frequently turn on the sports radio station in my car. It's relaxing for me to hear men who make their living talking about the achievement of athletes become so passionate about truly unimportant matters.

"Why did LeBron really leave Cleveland?"

"Do the Cards have a real shot at the postseason without Yadi?"

"Will Michael Sam get any playing time with the Rams?"

It's relaxing because if radio hosts are talking about such trivia, then I know the world is still spinning on its axis.

Sports talk shows are essentially white noise. Their true object is to distance the true cares of the day with non-essential morsels of information. Occasionally, something breaks through that catches my attention.

An ESPN host was talking with a man from Britain -- never caught the latter's name -- about retired football coach Tony Dungy's comments about the aforementioned Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted in the NFL, assuming that he makes the Rams' roster. The most newsworthy comment from the coach who won Super Bowl XLI with the Indianapolis Colts is that he wouldn't have drafted Sam, that the media attention surrounding the ex-Mizzou star would be too big a distraction for any team Dungy led.

It should be said that Tony Dungy is open about his Christianity. A few years ago, he decided to forgo coaching to turn his focus to at-risk young men. (He's also paying the bills by being an NFL analyst on TV.)

The aforementioned Brit, offended by the coach's remarks, offered the thought on ESPN that Dungy "marches to the orders of a Bronze Age book, back to the time when the Flintstones were still getting around on stone wheels."

Let's see now. "The Flintstones" was a cartoon show produced by the animators Hanna Barbera. Fiction. The Flintstones' theme song describes Fred, Wilma and Pebbles Flintstone as being a "Stone Age family." Perhaps accuracy isn't all that important when you're engaged in ad hominem attack. It's heat, not light, that the ESPN guest was generating.

The reference to "Bronze Age book" is a polemic about the Bible -- first popularized by atheist Dawkins, whose epigram begins this column. Let's examine this comment for accuracy. The Bible is sometimes referred to as a product of the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Partly true. The Bronze and Iron ages run from 3300-500 BC, which correlates roughly to the acceptable timeframe for the writing of the Old Testament. The New Testament came later, so our Brit friend is halfway right.

The disparagement apparently intended by the remark, "Bronze Age book," is that anything old is irrelevant. Is that so? I wonder if the ESPN guest would say the same about Plato's "The Republic," one of the great pieces of writing from antiquity dating from 380 BC.

In other words, the great philosopher's work was penned at the close of the Old Testament period. It must be junk because it's old!

There's a lot of silliness that slips out when people talk. So, in the spirit of the gibberish that often fills our airwaves and the Internet, I end this missive with these classic words: Yabba dabba doo.

Dr. Jeff Long, of Jackson, is executive director of the Chateau Girardeau Foundation and teaches religious studies at Southeast Missouri State University.