Illogical Fear and Ignorance
By Mriana ~
The other day I went to visit my younger son and met a woman who was visiting her husband. The visits in and of themselves are a story too, but as I was waiting to see my son, this woman starts talking bizarrely, as she rambled on about her superstitious mumbo-jumbo, which made no sense at all.
Gravelings -- Image via WikipediaIn the course of small talk, she said, “I believe in God, but I don’t believe in science.” Where that came from, I do not know, but anyway…
Cue “Dead Like Me”* mental thoughts, “Here we go again with some crazy fundie running her mouth off with superstitious stupidity. Not to mention, I didn’t know there was such a thing as “belief in science”.”
She rattled on about how scared she was of tornadoes that her god created and dying, which made my head spin because the woman absolutely no sense. I actually did feel like I was suddenly in an episode of “Dead Like Me” and I was Georgia, wishing I could just put the poor woman out of her misery. Unfortunately, I did not spy any gravelings around nor am I reaper. That and given that I live in the Bible Belt, as well as the headquarters of the Assembly of God, this is a common occurrence. Fundies are a dime a [baker’s] dozen in this area.
I finally said, “Let me get this straight. You believe in God, but not science and you believe God created the tornado?”
“Yeah.”
I continued, “And God decides when your time is to go, yet you are afraid of the tornado he created and afraid of death, which he decides.”
“Yeah, it’s crazy, isn’t it?”
I replied, “I like science.”
Her response was, “You do?”
“Yeah,” I replied as I tried to keep my laughter within myself.
After that, there was finally silence between us, as we waited to see our love ones, but it seemed odd to me, how a Christian can be so afraid of something their god created and at the same time be so afraid of death, when their god supposedly decides their fate. Not only that, Christians have this wonderful afterlife, in the Land of Oz, as though they do not die. The woman made no sense to me with her irrational fear and ignorance.
What is even stranger, I am not afraid of tornados, at least not in that manner. Through science, I learned to respect nature and its awesome forces. At the same time, I have no deity and am not afraid of death. Death does not bother me, but I am in no rush to die, either. Such a fear is not the same as the one she described, if it is considered a fear at all. I also do not have an afterlife, but that does not bother me.
Between the two of us, you would think I would be the one who feared dying and nature, but it appeared quite the opposite. This woman made absolutely no sense with her ramblings and poor evangelism. If she thought she was witnessing, she did a very bad job of it and did not win or save any new soul for her church nor did I reap a soul, given I was not Georgia in “Dead Like Me”.
It seems to me, if one had a deity on their side, protecting them, as well as expectations of living on, even after death, the person would not have any fear of dying. In fact, I would think they would be excited about such a prospect, if they truly believed it.
Secondly, if their god created something, what would there be to fear? One would think there would be less fear, especially if they believed their god was a loving god, who protected them.
This goes to show, what we do not understand, we fear and use superstition to irrationally and ignorantly explain what we do not understand. Religion throws people into Dark Age superstition and ignorance. Science is the answer to stopping superstition, but people need to be willing to accept such an education. Therein lies the problem- getting the Fundies to accept factual knowledge and real education.
I went home and told my older son about it and he said, “I like science. It taught me how to hide from the tornado her god created and therefore survived it.”
We both cracked up laughing over the woman’s shear ignorance, which was obviously self-imposed. At the same time, she had no idea she was talking to a humanist, an atheist, who believes in reason, based on science, and compassion, without any use of superstition. I never told her I am not a believer. I just kept my mouth shut, as I inwardly laugh at her superstitious self-imposed ignorance. Too bad “Dead Like Me” is just a TV show. If it were real, no telling what could happen. However, the sarcastic mental thoughts are real, as well as my own. Living in this area, they come so easily to a non-believer, like myself.
* http://www.deadlikeme.tv/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqAh-6-0ih0&
The other day I went to visit my younger son and met a woman who was visiting her husband. The visits in and of themselves are a story too, but as I was waiting to see my son, this woman starts talking bizarrely, as she rambled on about her superstitious mumbo-jumbo, which made no sense at all.
Gravelings -- Image via WikipediaCue “Dead Like Me”* mental thoughts, “Here we go again with some crazy fundie running her mouth off with superstitious stupidity. Not to mention, I didn’t know there was such a thing as “belief in science”.”
She rattled on about how scared she was of tornadoes that her god created and dying, which made my head spin because the woman absolutely no sense. I actually did feel like I was suddenly in an episode of “Dead Like Me” and I was Georgia, wishing I could just put the poor woman out of her misery. Unfortunately, I did not spy any gravelings around nor am I reaper. That and given that I live in the Bible Belt, as well as the headquarters of the Assembly of God, this is a common occurrence. Fundies are a dime a [baker’s] dozen in this area.
I finally said, “Let me get this straight. You believe in God, but not science and you believe God created the tornado?”
“Yeah.”
I continued, “And God decides when your time is to go, yet you are afraid of the tornado he created and afraid of death, which he decides.”
“Yeah, it’s crazy, isn’t it?”
I replied, “I like science.”
Her response was, “You do?”
“Yeah,” I replied as I tried to keep my laughter within myself.
After that, there was finally silence between us, as we waited to see our love ones, but it seemed odd to me, how a Christian can be so afraid of something their god created and at the same time be so afraid of death, when their god supposedly decides their fate. Not only that, Christians have this wonderful afterlife, in the Land of Oz, as though they do not die. The woman made no sense to me with her irrational fear and ignorance.
What is even stranger, I am not afraid of tornados, at least not in that manner. Through science, I learned to respect nature and its awesome forces. At the same time, I have no deity and am not afraid of death. Death does not bother me, but I am in no rush to die, either. Such a fear is not the same as the one she described, if it is considered a fear at all. I also do not have an afterlife, but that does not bother me.
Between the two of us, you would think I would be the one who feared dying and nature, but it appeared quite the opposite. This woman made absolutely no sense with her ramblings and poor evangelism. If she thought she was witnessing, she did a very bad job of it and did not win or save any new soul for her church nor did I reap a soul, given I was not Georgia in “Dead Like Me”.
It seems to me, if one had a deity on their side, protecting them, as well as expectations of living on, even after death, the person would not have any fear of dying. In fact, I would think they would be excited about such a prospect, if they truly believed it.
Secondly, if their god created something, what would there be to fear? One would think there would be less fear, especially if they believed their god was a loving god, who protected them.
This goes to show, what we do not understand, we fear and use superstition to irrationally and ignorantly explain what we do not understand. Religion throws people into Dark Age superstition and ignorance. Science is the answer to stopping superstition, but people need to be willing to accept such an education. Therein lies the problem- getting the Fundies to accept factual knowledge and real education.
I went home and told my older son about it and he said, “I like science. It taught me how to hide from the tornado her god created and therefore survived it.”
We both cracked up laughing over the woman’s shear ignorance, which was obviously self-imposed. At the same time, she had no idea she was talking to a humanist, an atheist, who believes in reason, based on science, and compassion, without any use of superstition. I never told her I am not a believer. I just kept my mouth shut, as I inwardly laugh at her superstitious self-imposed ignorance. Too bad “Dead Like Me” is just a TV show. If it were real, no telling what could happen. However, the sarcastic mental thoughts are real, as well as my own. Living in this area, they come so easily to a non-believer, like myself.
* http://www.deadlikeme.tv/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqAh-6-0ih0&