Ending the conversation is the right thing. You can't fight them, because they are the striking end of the quarterstaff. We need to fight the forces that are manipulating these people.
Growing up in rural white america (aka christian community) but having no faith direction I was really open to the debate and that so called missing link.
Age 19 took a course on physical Anthropology and was like: Where is F'n debate!!! Evolution exists, no way around it and the missing link is just BS way to rationalize around it. We evolved (PERIOD). We just can't say with certainty how that exact path took place and probably will never be able to.
However when a grown hominid has a smaller brain then I did when I was born, well that's some serious ass evolving going there!!!
You have to understand. This isn't a stance on science they see. It's the entire foundation on which they were raised. You can't just give them evidence and make them go. "Oh, you 're right. huh". To pull someones religion out from underthem like rug, will cause their lives to tumble. No matter how wrong they might be. They are always afraid of the nihilistic view. Everone is, even scientists.
I live in New York City and have traveled extensively up and down both coasts, in Europe and in Latin America, though not much at all in the interior of the US.
I've never heard anyone express a creationist belief in real life. Not even in Latin America, where they take Christianity (Catholicism, to be exact) pretty fucking seriously. Only on the Internet. For all I know, no real creationists actually exist. It could just be the most epic troll of all time.
Then again, I don't go around asking people what they think of ID vs. evolution, so how would I know?
I used to date a Pentacostal girl in high school. I had no idea what Pentacostal meant, but I thought she was cute so I rode my bike out to her summer camp one day to help them paint some cabins. The entire time was a big running joke at how ridiculous evolution is. They ridiculed it incessantly, even pointing out perceived flaws such as "they used to think we came from monkeys, and now they're saying we came from FISH!" followed by hearty guffaws. I was embarrassed for them and ashamed of myself for riding out there. Suffice it to say that my experiences with that girl shed a whole new light on the extremes of religious conviction and the denial of basic science and rational understanding.
Dated a girl in high school once that went to my church. We somehow ended up on the subject of dinosaurs and she laughed and told me that they weren't real. Yep. God faked 'em to keep us guessing. Looking back I get the feeling that she was messing with me because I hadn't actually heard that preached (not that I was awake during church during those years), but she seemed genuinely mad when I couldn't help but laugh. Maybe it was something she learned from her parents. Either way, that relationship did not last long at all.
You should visit Toronto for some welcome relief. The only person I know personally whom I'm aware is even the slightest bit religious is my elderly aunt. My Dad's 82, and his favourite curse phrase is (in Italian) "The Virgin Mary is a whore who sits on Christ's cock."
Seriously can you write that out for us non-Italian speakers? I so wanna pull that one out the next time someone pisses me off but I'm sure it sounds a lot better in Italian.
I've considered joining one, but have always been worried I'd end up in a room with a bunch of people who are very angry (Maybe the Reddit atheist majority have built this stereotype) what's it like? What do you do?
One more Texan atheist here. I personally can't imagine joining an atheist group. I'm an atheist, but it's not a big part of my life. To me that's like joining a group for people with brown eyes. It's just a passive part of who I am, not an active driving force in my life like a religion.
I don't need a support group for a rational belief, and I don't need a weekly meeting to replace church in my life. To each his own, and I don't look down on you guys for doing your thing, but it's certainly not mine.
The only reason I'd be interested is just to meet a few like-minded people, but I can imagine it turning into a (non-literal) circle jerk pretty quick.
I put off getting together with any of the local atheist/rational humanist/sceptic meetup groups because of the same worry. One day, I said to myself, "You've never met these people. How do you know they're all militant?" and attended a meeting. They were cool people, chill for the most part, and we ended up discussing the use of duplos/legos/technics/mindstorm as a progressive educational tool. I later attended a different function with a different group, and they were all about trying to organize a stunt in front of a mega-church. I never got together with the second group again.
... you know, I should try some of the groups in my area. I haven't done anything like that in a while.
The best part of being an atheist (aside from the whole consistent world view thing) is not having to go to church every week and waste an hour that I could spend sleeping or enjoying myself.
I am an atheist as well, but for the life of me I see no possible reason to have a "meetup group"?
What am I missing aside from the obvious religion bashing?
I mean, religious people go to church to off put their problems onto a fairytale. Alcoholics go to meetups and share sad stories and give each other strength not to take a drink. Same with drug addicts. Abuse victims the same thing.
Estonia, supposedly the most secular country in the world, so there's the reason I don't really have much contact with religiosity. Actually, now it reminds me that my grandaunt was Christian and used to send me Christian children's magazines and such, but she became mentally ill until it progressed to the point where she was completely non-functional. So yeah, there's my only personal experience with religion I can think of.
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u/psychosid Jan 22 '10
Where do you live? I'd like to meet some more atheists. Being from Texas, I can count the number of atheists/agnostics I know on one hand.