Saturday, March 26, 2011

My boy Darwin

Okay, I admit it. I lapsed. I promised I wouldn't fall off the planet, and I did. I lied. I'm a big fat liar pants. Get over it.

I'm Kinda sorta working again. I took a part time job working for a friend of mine at the State Liquor and Wine outlet. I love it. The people are awesome, we have a lot of laughs. It is a total reversal of my last eleven years where I hated the majority of the people I worked with, and wouldn't piss on most of them if they spontaneously combusted. I would more likely roast marshmallows on their twitching corpses... and I don't even like marshmallows! I'm also back working the door at "The Bar". Again, I like it. Easy money. The store is great, but I'm not sure it is a long-term deal. My severance is slowly shrinking and I should probably start looking for something more permanent and lucrative if I want to maintain my little nest egg. I'll hold onto the bar as long as possible--easy money and all--and it wouldn't really interfere with a M-F 9-5 type gig.

I am also taking two classes this term. History I, and Humanities II. History isn't bad because it's in class. I somehow thought it would be a great idea to take Humanities as an online course. I was wrong. I liken it to repeatedly hitting myself in the face with a bag of hammers. Anyway, the impetus for this post is that in my humanities class we have to post discussions about historical figures, artists, literature, paintings... all that smartsy type shit. So I posted about Darwin and the theory of evolution since it was period specific (Neoclassical/Romantic era). Holy fucking Christ on a stick you'd think I just prison raped the virgin Mary!

I get comments like this shit:

"i find darwins  ideas and beliefs to be intriguing,  although i have christian beliefs and therefore i do not believe his  theories, i still find his  work to be very interesting everyone has a different perspective in life."
Really? You don't believe hundreds of years of scientific proof, human genome mapping, genetic studies of both flora and fauna, entire libraries filled from floor to ceiling of documented, empirical, scientific data that all points to the fact that evolution is real and ongoing? Do you also not believe that the sun is the center of the solar system and that dinosaurs once roamed the earth? You do realize that even the catholic church accepts the principles of evolution to be fact right?

"I also have Christian beliefs, and I do find Darwin's theory interesting and I could see why people would believe that. A part of me thinks that what he believes makes sense and all, but I've had the fact that we were created drilled into my head for so long that it's kind of hard to think anything else happened."
And a part of me believes you almost pulled your head out of your ass long enough to think for yourself instead of letting years of indoctrination do your thinking for you.

Don't get me wrong, if a grown adult wants to believe a fairy tale about a giant magical dude in the sky wiggling his fingers to make things happen, all the power to ya! I have no problem with people looking for an explanation for their existence. It's just when people bury their heads in the sand and refuse to THINK outside the biblical box that I get a little perturbed. I may be a godless heathen, but even I know that your good books tells us that G-to-the-D gave humans the gift of free will, which comes with perks like making your own decisions and questioning the workings of the natural world. I am even okay with the belief that G-to-the-D kick-started the universe and let it evolve on its own. But to deny scientific proof of something simply because it wasn't written down in your book is just childish and inane.


I'm not a "take things on faith" kinda guy. I believe in what I can see, touch, feel, examine, question, and tangibly witness. I would love for God to come down, pat me on the back and say "hey, look, here I am. All my glory and awesomeness and shit. Let's talk." And I would accept his existence without further question or denial, but until that day I rely on proof. Hard proof. Not that frilly shit like "well then how do you explain *insert some seemingly miraculous event here*" or "Well the bible says *insert circumstantial evidence of God here*." I'm sure there are all sorts of events that, on the surface, appear entirely miraculous. Just as I am sure there is a scientific explanation for all of them. I don't believe in ghosts, Zeus, Coyote,  Allah, Yahweh, or any other member of the forgotten pantheons of gods and goddesses that came before this incarnation of convenient explanation, or any that may follow. If that means we cant be friends, I'm sorry to hear that, but at least you used your "god given" ability for free thought to come to that decision.

3 comments:

  1. I believe that in order to enroll in college courses, one must be required to pass a basic written test. It's entire purpose would be to determine whether or not one has a basic ELEMENTARY LEVEL GRASP OF GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION!

    Sorry, it took me a minute to actually get further than that first quote due to the amazing lack of basic writing skills. Then my head lit on fire over the actual text.

    Think, people. It's what separates you from lentils. I sometimes wonder if they're trying to convince God "See? We knew that we got in trouble for that whole eating from the Tree of Knowledge episode, so we made sure to stop thinking so you'll let us back in".

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  2. Seriously, and I'm not being hyperbolic here, that person you chastise above is actually one of the better ones I have run into. In my English 120 class one guy (mid twenties) handed in a paper written entirely in text speak and couldn't understand why my professor lost his shit and made him rewrite it.

    And people post on the forum without ever running a spell check. This infuriates me because I am expected to slog through their child like gibberish and make constructive comments, when all I want to do is take a digital red pen and correct all their mistakes and then rub their noses in it like dogs that just shit on my rug (you know... the rug that ties the whole room together).

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  3. Quick hits:
    - I have a three-week temporary gig! Congrats on the store job. Too much downtime blows. And if I'd been on fire at SSS, would you have peed on me?
    - My view of the universe (and answer to anyone who asks why I don't believe in any gods): Faith is belief without facts, and I need facts.
    - Bad spelling and grammar (and all the excuses used by the ill-trained) are one of my all-time pet peeves. It's an insult to America's greatness, and a sure sign that this particular empire is on the fast track to joining Rome on history's trash heap (now where did I leave that English to Mandarin dictionary?).

    Glad yer back ta bloggin'! :Þ

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