Religion vs Atheism vs Assholeism !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Daanyeer]

..................."Firstly bananas can be eaten by a lot of creatures, not just humans. You could equally say that humans evolved for bananas to fit into their hands. "


Religion vs Atheism vs Azzholeism


Source: newsicus.com
May 5, 2007 Author: By Steven Rhoberg



The topic of religion is something that I’ve always avoided in discussions with new people. I myself have always been a semi-devout Christian. I’ve believed in a God and the good book all of my life, but I don’t go to church or read the Bible regularly. Frankly I just found doing both of these things pretty boring, and the people at church are, in my mind, kind of flakey. However there have been many points in my life, very personal moments, where I’ve been touched by God. I have made a point, however, not to bring these points up around either my religious and equally my atheist friends. I’m not one to rub my beliefs in other people’s faces. This generally wasn’t a problem, but I do recall one girl that really rubbed me the wrong way and made me question how I view other people’s opinions.

Back in high school there was a girl named Sandra Pie, a devout atheist, if there is such a thing. We were never really close friends, we were more just acquaintances who happened to be friends with the same people. I can recall a time when we were at a writing conference for young people and during one of the small group sessions the topic of religion came up. The local author who was directing the group asked people how they identified themselves religiously and how this affected their writing. When the group circle got around to me I brought up the fact that I consider myself a Christian.

”You’re a Christian??” Sandra said with bemusement.

“Yes, I consider myself to be a believer in God,” I said.

“Wow, I always thought that somebody as smart as you wouldn’t believe in something so stupid. Religion is all about the blind leading the blind. A bunch of sheep being lead to the slaughter by a fox. I have no respect for people who can believe in the concept of a ‘God’. I stopped believing in imaginary friends when I was five,” she said with a smirk.

Obviously insulted by her statement, I retorted, “Don’t you think there’s more to life than meets the eye? You can still experience things without having to necessarily see them.”

“Things that other people tell you exist,” she said, “so that they can make money off of your stupidity.”

The basis of her entire argument was that a) religious people are stupid, b) I, therefore, am stupid and c) anything that I say is now considered stupid and therefore does not deserve anything other than an ad hominem attack. The author during the session told us both to calm down and we proceeded on with more group work.

Sandra switched schools that summer and I didn’t see her again until university four years later.

When I met her the second time she was no long Sandra Pie, but was now Sandra Carre. I hadn’t really kept up with her during the years between high school and university, but the fact that she had been married prior to us starting our first year definitely came as a surprise. When I asked her who she ended up marrying, oddly enough she stated that it was, “a close friend that I met while at my summer church group.” I wasn’t delighted in this fact, it really doesn’t matter how many people other than myself shared my beliefs. I was more confused.

“Aren’t you the one who said that all religious people are ’sheep’? The ‘blind leading the blind’?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said, “I used to say that, and I’m really ashamed that I did because now I’ve seen the will of God and all that he does for us.”

This was definitely a change of heart in this girl, but that’s not the point of this story. The real story happened when we had a genetics class together. After discussing the “DNA Dogma”, detailing the processes of DNA, mRNA, tRNA and the transcription into protein, we moved on to a short section on the mechanisms of genetic selection. The whole concept of evolution made sense to me, it was remarkably simple and also remarkably plausible. I didn’t have any trouble integrating that concept into my existing beliefs. Just because things evolved over billions of years doesn’t mean that I couldn’t also believe in a God guiding this process. Sandra Carre, who was sitting in the seat in front of me, thought otherwise.

She put her hand up in the class, “why don’t you give equal exposure to the topic of creationism?” She sat there proudly while defending her new found beliefs.

“Well,” the professor said, “Creationism isn’t a scientifically validated theory at this current point in time.”

“How is it any more plausible than evolution? There is no proof that monkeys turned into people or that lizards turned into dogs!” she exclaimed.

“I think you’re missing the point of this lecture,” he stated, “but if you want to talk more about this I’m available after class.” And to his credit, the professor did talk with her after class and it seemed like a fairly civil discussion on his part.

However Sandra didn’t want to give up there. She began printing off articles on why “evolution is a lie” and “the proof behind Creationist theory” then distributing these to the class. One of these was an article that talked about how if you found a watch on the ground, you’d be a fool to assume that it wasn’t created by somebody. It also talked about how things such as bananas were designed to fit “right into the human hand”.

“These articles are pretty easy to accept at first,” I said, “but they don’t really disprove anything in evolutionary theory. Firstly bananas can be eaten by a lot of creatures, not just humans. You could equally say that humans evolved for bananas to fit into their hands. Secondly, the only reason that you’d think a clock was made by somebody is that you already know that clocks are made by human beings. What if you found an object that was completely out of the realm of anything you’d ever seen before? Something that you’d never seen or known anybody to make? To assume that it was ‘created’ by somebody would be folly without evidence to this point.” I was enjoying our debate and was interested to hear her counter argument.

“You people are idiots!” she said. “You’re all going to burn in hell for what you’re saying! You just believe what other people want you to believe without thinking for yourself! You call yourself a Christian? A real Christian goes to church and reads the Bible and believes in a God that created man! You’re no Christian, you’re just a joke!”

My friends and I looked at each other in disbelief.

As it turns out, it wasn’t the fact that Sandra was originally an atheist that bothered me, or the fact that she was now devoutly religious. Rather it was, plain and simple, the fact that she was a pompous asshole!