Religious Confrontation

Watching Bones has got me thinking more about religion. I liked the series at first, but I'm getting more ambivalent the more I watch. It's becoming a show where the conservative, religious, righteous, traditionally masculine cop is converting the logical, open-minded, atheist anthropologist scientist. But maybe I just feel that way because of my own biases? :)

I've always felt like my life has been rather bland and without confrontation. Granted, I actively avoid confrontation, but it seems like so many other people get it thrown at them whether they want it or not. I've always imagined how I would lash out if someone tried to confront me - I'd come up with a scathingly witty retort, or land a swift sturdy kick to the groin and then a solid hook to the head. I know that if it ever actually happened, though, I'd be caught like a deer in headlights. People are rarely ever that definitively antagonistic. Things do not happen in stark blacks and whites - things happen in shades of gray. People try to sweet talk you and they keep a smile on their face. They won't touch you, or if they do they are so polite you can not fault them. In those cases, you would be breaking social conventions by lashing out. If you lash out, they will have ammunition to call you the crazy one, and they would have won. These people need to be handled with finesse and not brute force.

In any case, all these situations take practice to know how to handle, and I don't have that experience. I suppose that is why I like to read about others' experiences, so I can think of ways to handle the situations. Religion is something I go back to because it's one of the few widespread ways in which people can still discriminate and not be socially ostracized. Living at home, I'm pretty certain we've had religious proselytizers at our door, but if our parents or grandparents answer they always had the excuse of not speaking English. After moving out, I've only lived in secured apartment buildings. That definitely keeps away most of the door-to-door people.

All my experience with religious proselytizers has thus been when I am out - either on campus, sitting at a public place. In these situations, the proselytizer has many options and will not usually continue to bother me if I express that I have no interest in their religion. Isn't that what we atheists want - to not have the religious push their agendas on us with their talk of hellfire and brimstone? Sure, but damn it, I want that religious person to see my point of view. I end up feeling silly for that - the anti-proselytizer atheist wants to try to convert the religious proselytizers! A new thought came to me when I read a thread on the atheist boards. Instead of me feeling like I want to shove my anti-woo rationality down their throats, how about I turn it around and ask them why they believe in what they do? If they can acknowledge there is no rationality in their reason for believing, then I can be satisfied. There's nothing I can do if someone is willing to believe in something they have no evidence for.

The next time I get approached by a religious person in public, I hope I will have the courage to be confrontational and actually talk to them. Ugh, I suppose that means I'll actually have to remember facts and things. Eh, maybe it will be fun?

Born Again Proselytizer

I was sitting outside Starbucks today, eating my lunch, when a Born-Again Christian proselytizer began circulating the tables. He would ask people if they knew that Jesus died for their sins and would have them repeat a prayer after which their sins were now "forgiven". When he came to my table, he tried to give me a business card, but I sad "No thanks" and he left for the next table.

On the one hand, I'm glad he didn't try to pursue the issue with me any further. On the other hand, I'm kind of disappointed I didn't get to loudly declare my atheism at him. Everyone else has all these interesting stories...

"Discussions"

It gets so frustrating having discussions about controversial subjects with Lawrence. They often turn into something more like arguments. It's hard for me to distance myself emotionally from the subject matter when it's something that I feel strongly about. This makes it worse for me because I can't put my thoughts into a coherent argument...and I don't even know if I have a valid argument or not.

I do appreciate his efforts to get me to think about the world differently, but it's hard because I feel like I've already done so much solidification of my worldviews while in high school and college.

Is science as a worldview the same as religions as worldviews? I feel that science is separate but not mutually exclusive from religion. They're just different things like how the subject of math is different from the subject of history. Lawrence would argue that I only feel this way because I grew up in a society that taught me to think secularly. If I grew up in a more religious culture, religion would tinge everything in the world around me. Scientific arguments would have no weight. Religion and science are both ways in which we interpret the world around us, and he would argue that as worldviews, their relative utility is irrelevant so I can't use that as a reason for denying them equal status.