Backtrack.

You see this little girl?

She's always had a curious, scientific mind. She would do all she could to learn. Her childhood was spent reading books. Not fiction little storybooks, but introductory books about things like astronomy or biology. Her favorite television show for years was The Magic Schoolbus, where she actually learned a great deal of information. She never really cared for Sesame Street or Barney, much. Once you knew how to read and count, what could you really get out of them, anyway?

Her room was always full of books. Although at first they were all kept in the living room, and were expected to be shared by all the family (four kids.) Once this girl discovered them, though, they all slowly migrated to her own room, one by one. Her parents didn't like it at first, but after realizing that none of her siblings took any interest in them, they decided to just let her keep them.

By the first grade, she already knew what stars were made of, how the human body fights infection, and what causes wind (consequently, the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" annoyed her a bit.) But her learning journey was far from over. She knew nothing of the "stork" story, and one time in third grade she became very frustrated with a classmate that couldn't understand that "babies came from their mothers' eggs." The classmate kept yelling, "But humans don't lay eggs!"... Absolutely not understanding the concept. However, these things were so obvious to the young girl, and she had no idea how far behind most people actually are in learning these things. Along similar lines: She never asked her parents, "Where do babies come from?" Instead, she asked them, "How does the sperm get to the egg?" (to which they replied, "You'll find out when you're older.")

One time she was with some friends at the nearby park, at night. They were looking up at the stars, and she was pointing out constellations. But a neighbor would argue against her, saying things like, "But Orion's Belt is in the Big Dipper!", "Stars aren't different colors! They're all yellow!" , and, what annoyed her the most, "Stars don't twinkle, planets do!" These two would often feud over such disagreements, never finding common ground between them. But this girl was the unpopular of the two, so no matter what facts she brought up, the other kids would automatically go, "Nope, the other kid is right."

Then came a day that broke her spirits. She was with those neighbor kids again, talking about some other astronomical concept. One boy stopped, looked right at her, and asked a question. "What's the point of being an astronomer? What can you really DO for anyone? 'Oh, look, I found a new planet!... Now what?' How does that help people at all?..."

The girl thought it over, but at the time couldn't come up with a thing. She was speechless to him. Was all this knowledge truly pointless? Is there actually anything to gain? She thought about it for a long time, well after that day. For a while, she stopped reading about it. She was so discouraged and did not know what to do. "He's just stupid", she told herself, "He just doesn't understand. There HAS to be some importance in this, there just has to be!" Eventually, she returned to reading about it. However, there seemed to be a hole in her heart where all the passion once was. Nature and anatomy were still good subjects to read about, since meteorologists and doctors use that information all the time; but it took a few years until she questioned the point behind learning about astronomy again.

Several years later, for some unknown reason, the thought crept back into her mind. But this time she saw it all fresh and new. "If we discovered a new planet, there could be life on it! Imagine the possibilities with that! And how could you call this useless? If we quickly discovered a comet or other space object coming towards Earth, we could have a better chance at avoiding collisions! Even if those things don't matter, astronomy is still used constantly to predict the tides!...." Obvious ideas, both fantastic and realistic, came right to her. Ohh, how could she let that kid get to her so?! How dare she allow his ignorance to spread! Too bad she was sure that he had forgotten all about it, even if she could find him again. How foolish she felt, but only for a moment. Ever since then, every time she thought about it she would be filled with anger. Anger that she couldn't correct him right then and there, anger that she let his question bother her for so long and keep her from learning what she loved, anger that he probably STILL doesn't know any better, anger that he might have discouraged other young minds since that point!

------

I've actually strayed from what I originally meant to say. My original point was going to be how, now that this child is older, it boggles her mind to read/hear adults not understanding the basics about science. When they don't understand the simple concept of evolution or molecular chemistry... To know that there are people out there with adequate life experience who STILL deny that diseases are caused by germs... This child cries for them. Ignorance of that magnitude is simply out of her reach. She was always amazed that children did not understand the things that she said. Now that she has grown up and sees even adults not understanding her.... she's just.. she's just speechless... again..

.....

I really have no more to say....


except "ignorant people disgust me."

I did the Blasphemy Challenge just five days ago, and I already received my The God Who Wasn't There DVD! I'm so happy. I'll watch it as soon as I get some work done.

In other news, I met a fundy kid the other day. We've been having debates, and, amazingly, it's been very civil and understanding. I like it. Every point was countered (although not necessarily agreed with, of course) with some sort of actual response. Now, this is very different from the type of debate I'm used to- where people just interrupt others, like little children, just to attack a half-said answer (that is thus completely out of context.) Everyone was patient, and we all were able to express our sides. It was two against two, and I'm so happy to have someone on my side. Although all my best friends are atheist/agnostic, it's always such a breath of fresh air to meet a new one (or just discover that someone you already knew is one.) So they were very pleasant debates and I always walked away with the hope that maybe, just maybe our points will be considered. It's interesting to see how religious minds work.... except at times it can be downright confusing. ;-)

Tomorrow my love arrives from Ontario. Oh, I'm so excited!! Everything's all set up for the holidays, only thing missing is him.

So I won't be around for a little. I have nothing really interesting to say. I do have one thing to offer, though....



Redundance, anyone?...

You know those anti-abortion arguments that christians love to use? Those "what if" statements that try and guilt you out of feeling like you do? Like what if that baby was going to be the person that cured cancer, or diabetes, or brought about world peace, etc?

Well I have a "what if" for them.

What if you found yourself, old and alone, never started a family because you never found the right person. All your life, you've searched and searched. Church gatherings, personal ads, blind dates... but nobody ever quite fit for you. Sure, there have been close ones, but never anybody that you could actually commit with. But all this time, the perfect person was there near you. They lived next door to you, and you knew them, but never gave even a second thought to it. The truth is, your goals and wishes fit together perfectly, and your personalities go together amazingly. This neighbour really is your soulmate, but you've overlooked them so long.

How could you have never seen it? All this time, and you never knew? But why?...


Because you both share the same public bathrooms, share the same locker rooms.. and share the same bigoted opinion against homosexuality.


....................


*Sigh*, how easily their tactics can be used against them. It's really amazing how trapped a closed mind really is...

I went to New York state with my parents this weekend, since nobody had work (and I love long car rides.) We stayed at this great Best Western hotel (it was absolutely wonderful, and had everything: even free DVD rentals and computer, -yes, with internet- access!) Of course, we all know about the Gideons (You know, those magical fairies that plant bibles in every freakin' hotel room? Yeah. Them.) I opened up the nighttable and what did I find? Ah yes, a lovely little bible. Then I saw on top of the table, like some sort of sign... a pencil... I knew then that there was something I had to do.

So, like a young child with a new pack of crayons and a blank pad of paper, I went to work. I mostly doodled random stuff, but I also crossed out the title page where it says "Holy Bible", and wrote "Book of Magic." Anybody want to see my Jesus??



=) He's so cute, ain't he? Looks like a happy bum.

Time for another religious rant! Ah, can't you just feel gawd's love?

This time let's focus on all those who cry about following "gawd's plan." Fundies yell about people not "following gawd's plan" due to committing one action or another. Oh, he's gay- he's not following gawd's plan. Oh, she got an abortion- she's not following gawd's plan. I mean, first of all there's the normal argument: What if them doing these things was in gawd's plan all along?
"Oh no" they argue, "They are committing atrocious sins against gawd. They will be punished for not obeying gawd's mighty law."

But let's step away for a minute and look at the idea of time. "Time" (if thought of as physical, and not merely as the figment of our imaginations that it is) is constant, in a line. Something that happens in the past can never be changed. It will always be there, and the effects of what happens from it will also forever continue. Like a wave that never quite hits shore.
So thus one action that occurred in the past, for instance, someone not following gawd's plan, will always have happened, and the "waves" of its wake will continue to live on in the actions of others... Meaning, if that horrid mortal sin had never happened, what's happening today would never have happened either. If your grandfather never met your grandmother, you would never have been born. It's such an obvious and simple concept. Any (non-fundie) fool should understand.
That one flaw in gawd's plan happened. And thus, every action afterward (as the entire future was affected, essentially) was also against gawd's plan... since it wouldn't have occurred if the first person didn't go against it! If that's so, then NONE of us could be going against "gawd's plan", since our very existance would be against it in the first place.

Oh, but maybe gawd changed everything and fixed it to make it all better?
Well then what's the fucking point in following his damn plan in the FIRST place?? Sky daddy'll just make it all better, so we're free to fuck up what he wants as much as we desire to.

There's no way to win with that pathetic excuse. Anyway, who says that having an atheist change to a believer isn't really against gawd's plan anyway? After all, it's so mysterious and above our intellect....

Hmm.. I've just been reading more stuff at Fundies Say and realised yet another contradiction to the bibble.. It's not really worth its own post, but I just want to write it somewhere before I forget it (which happens only too often.)

Let's go back to the Garden of Eden, shall we? Yeah, so Eve ate the fruit and damned the human race and blah blah blah. Some say this made gawd angry, and now women have to experience such serious pain during childbirth. But wait. Hold on a moment. Childbirth? If gawd intended that Adam and Eve live forever in that garden, there'd be no need to reproduce. Yeah, I know, that's been thought of before. Now they go out and die, so they have to create children blah blah blah. But I'm saying back up a minute. If they were to be eternal at first, why would they even HAVE the ability to reproduce? That's certainly not going to help matters- letting every creature reproduce and never die off (and thus never creating more space for others.) How was that garden supposed to cope? Or maybe, gawd created the ability for humans (and other animals?) to reproduce AFTER we all were damned. But if that was the case, how could you say that gawd then made childbirth painful? There was no childbirth to begin with. You can't add onto something that isn't there. Either Earth was doomed from the get-go, via overcrowding in a tiny garden, because gawd gave these guys the ability to reproduce (and later made it painful); or childbirth was ALWAYS painful, and so you can't place a fault on gawd for making it moreso. It was just like that from the start, and no matter what Eve did, she couldn't have avoided that pain.

Eh. That's my (anti)religious thought of the day... err.. week?.. longer? Ah well, it's my thought for this time. Good enough.