God thinks you're an idiot. So does Shikamaru.

[timepiececlock]

I bought a Time magazine issue tonight because the cover feature was about the increased fervor in the debate of evolution in schools.

I started reading it in the car, but when I got to the map showing which states had started to enact the predecessors to anti-evolution measures at which political levels, I threw it down in disgust and drove home. I'll finish later, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, it made me want to do what I want to do when faced with this kind of imbecillic stuff (or other imbecillic stuff) that comes from religious groups: throw this song in their face. Not because it indicates any religious belief on my part (hah!), but because if I were a religious person, I'm pretty sure this would be my take on it. It's an attitude of healthy skepticism I wish I'd see more in the masses that do subscribe to belief in higher beings.



EDIT:... further thought:

When I was in early adolescence, around the age of 12ish to 16ish, I really wanted to ingore religions, especially deity-based ones. You know, pretend it doesn't exist since it has little to no bearing on me anyway. Sometime in going from 15 to being an adult I came to terms with some inescapable facts:

a) I may not believe in a god, but lots of people do and they probably won't "get over it"

b) I want to function in the world and be friends with and possibly date some of the abovementioned people. Also, more than half of my family are those people too. Hard to get away from that.

c) Religion seriously influences politics and ideology and where people put their money, and since political science is my major and I want to be in public service, religion isn't something I can ignore.

d) It's p-c acceptable in conversation to say you're an atheist, but it's not p-c to admit that you secretly think most of the people in the world have to be kind of stupid to believe in anything that absurd in the first place. Also, saying that hurts people's feelings, which makes you feel crappy and stuff.

e) Having accepted the fact that religious belief is part of the world we live in, I really ought to put some effort into educating myself about it more simply so I can know what the frell people are talking about beyond the most basic of Biblical references.

f) Knowing that other people believe doesn't really help me understand why they do the things they do in the name of their respective gods. I don't understand why women get the crappy deal in most religions, I don't understand fundamentalism that leads to violence, and I don't understand the rejection of science that betters the lives of all human being. I highly suspect that I could read all the Bibles and Quarans and the ancient Hindu texts and I'd still not understand these things.

Comments

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

In that I have to disagree. I've talked with enough people who believe strongly in the things I consider to be the worst aspects of religion, and I know they "honestly believe" and it's not carryover from parental issues. Knowing they do, however, doesn't help me understand how they could.

[flouritephoenix.livejournal.com]

But...they never have any proof to back it up other than what their parents/minister told them, and they try to get out of those conversations as quickly as possible. They can't ellaborate on their statements. Like, say that someone says "God put Dinosaur bones on the earth to test our faith." And you say, ellaborate on that. They say, "Um, the bones, they were, um, put there by God, so he could see if we believe in the Bible." And you say, "You just said the same thing using different words" and they say "Did you hear Dillard's is a having a sale?"

That's my problem believing that they've actually thought about it. And you can't really truly with all your heart believe something that you haven't thought about. They don't have enough words at their disposal for me to trust that they're not just repeating something.

[flouritephoenix.livejournal.com]

Did you see the gay episode of 30 Days? I think that's a good example of how a person fights thinking about something they believe, because that belief structure completely collapses when they finally consider it. All in 30 days.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

30 days is one of those shows I always think I'm going to watch when I see a commercial for it, but it's never on when I'm actually browsing tv. But if I see a rerun of that episode, I'll try to catch it.