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!

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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. ;-)