Disgusted

[digitaldiscipline]

In a nutshell, this country's problem with religious fundamentalism vs. rationalism

or

"why rafe took a short lunch"

Going to the sushi joint across the way from my office is a fairly regular occurrence. However, flying solo is far different than showing up with a couple of coworkers. For one thing, I don't get a menu, and am getting food dropped off at the table before I've even cracked the book I bring with me open.

Unfortunately, the Member's Club level of service doesn't make up for having still-functioning hearing, as I fail to ignore the conversation taking place behind my left shoulder - a middle-aged gentleman, a woman of similar years, and a pre-pubescent little girl are apparently meeting for lunch, and the topic du jour is creation v. evolution, with the guy as the proponent of evolution.

He got his ass handed to him. By the kid.

Not because he couldn't string together a coherent sentence, but because he was hampered by having manners. He conceded the "common ancestor for both apes and man" half-step, but the little girl was having none of it. Just before I got up and walked out (to enjoy 45 minutes of thinking of ways to make a point to someone like that[1]), she declaimed, "I'm sorry God's going to send you to hell for not believing in Adam and Eve." (At least her mother had the good taste to say, "Honey, you can't go around saying things like that.")

Mom seemed to think that both evolution and extinction were dubious, and specifically denied that "life evolved from single-celled organisms."

There's fundamentalism's strength in a nutshell - Religious fundamentalists are a nine year old who can't use chopsticks and won't listen, and rational scientists are a guy trying not to call her an ignorant, rude little bitch in front of her mother.




[1] Ask, "What color were Noah & his wife? Since they were the only two left after the flood, where did all the different-colored people come from? Either the flood didn't happen [which means The Bible isn't true], or those other kinds of people evolved from Noah and his children."

[2] Ask, "What's your favorite book? Okay, other than The Bible. Somebody made that up, to tell a story. How do you know that someone didn't do that for The Bible, too?"

Comments

The correct response...

[smaugchow.livejournal.com]

The response I like to use to a statement like "I'm sorry you are going to Hell..." is something like, "I'm sorry you believe that I'm going to Hell."

Well, only if I'm trying to be polite. Otherwise it's more along the lines of "Fuck off, bible humper" or "Why would god give you a brain and then not let you use it?"

Christianity wouldn't be so bad if not for the evangelicals who feel the need to spread their disease. I like quiet christians - hell, I almost envy them. I can only imagine the warm blanket of comfort such ignorance must provide. But as long as they keep it where it belongs - in THEIR lives - I have no problem with it. It's even fun to debate with them - kinda like damming up a creek as a kid. You can't beat the water (overcome their blind faith), but you can sure have fun giving it a hard time.

Classic!!!

[deansavatar.livejournal.com]

Religious fundamentalists are a nine year old who can't use chopsticks and won't listen, and rational scientists are a guy trying not to call her an ignorant, rude little bitch in front of her mother

Thanks, Rafe . . . this is Golden!

[anngwish42.livejournal.com]

Here's what I have never gotten about the whole fundamentalist hangup about Creationism/Intelligent Design/whatever they're calling it these days:

What the fuck sort of God needs to break His own rules, to essentially "turn on God mode", to get the world running? To me, a perfect evolutionary system is WAY more convincing evidence of an omnipotent Creator than the idea that said Creator had to monkey with the system so drastically that the intervention could be observed by humans...

[http://users.livejournal.com/masque__/]

Well, the Noah story has been around for a long time.. people have come up with answers for that one.

Noah and his family were saved.. including his sons, who had married women of other races. Ham and Shem and so forth..

and I don't want to talk about why I know that.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't they have been smited for doing so, though? I mean, the OT God was always smiting someone or other, or cursing someone with a plague of whatsits. Leviticus was one nit-picky fuck.

And where did all the other religions come from, then?

The narrowness of believing the Bible is factually truthful, and not simply an oversized parable, is intellectual blasphemy (imnsho).

[analmuch.livejournal.com]

The anti-organized religion heretic here has to put forth a correction. Shem, Ham and Japeth were also saved from the flood as well as were their wives who were of different skin color. (HA!)

Or you could choose to believe that the skin colors are a result of genetic mutations (please see micro-evolution).

Neither here nor there, though.

Very disappointing to hear someone get side-stepped for not saying the obvious. Damn kids...they "know" that they are right. I prefer my thoughts which I "know" beyond the shadow of a doubt are correct. So, what are the thing that separates the kids from the adults?

If anyone even thinks about bringing the age thing up, I will kick their ass.