2005-09-12 13:38![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
digitaldiscipline
digitaldisciplineIn 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?"
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?"
