There has been a link circulating around Facebook that has caused blood to sear in my veins. The link takes you to an article entitled “Argument for the Existence of God.”
The article begins with the “atheist professor” forcing one of this students to stand so that the professor may tell him all that is wrong with that student’s beliefs. The professor continues to act as not only a horrible teacher, impressing his own views onto students, but also a terrible person in general as he implies that this student is naïve or an idiot.
Suddenly — not so suddenly, really — the tables turn as the cool, calm theist tears down his teacher. The student makes the professor’s so-called illogical disbelief in a deity seem to be the idiotic point of view.
This angers me tremendously. No, this is not because I am not a religious person. It is so tiring to see blatant, exaggerated and false characterizations of these two groups — the theists and the atheists. Just as when atheists make their own propaganda on how stupid they find theists to be, when theists place one horrid person as the representative of an entire group, only hatred breeds.
Have you ever noticed how much death has been caused by trying to impress one’s beliefs onto others? The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Ottoman Empire’s jihad against Europe, the fallout from the Protestant Reformation, the Irish civil war, the current Middle East conflict, Pakistan and India, the oppression of the religious in the USSR — the list goes on and on. From both sides of the never-ending conflict there is a desire to pick the worst of the group to generalize and characterize all the rest.
Has no one ever heard of coexistence? Spreading around propaganda such as that link enrages me not because it comforts those religious after they have dealt with the equally revolting atheist attacks, but because it serves only to perpetuate a stereotype that is simply not true.
Stop circling all the hateful propaganda, and just start accepting how others are — not like you.
Julie Heffler is a biochemistry freshman and may be reached at [email protected].
OPINION: Don’t blanket the other side of belief http://t.co/AT1cHlvk
I post as a Christian and a Geologist…
I find it interesting how angry both sides get at each other. An example of the atheist camp: Go on the amazon kindle forum at http://www.amazon.com and there are threads of users who get ANGRY when they finish a book they liked but only to find out it had christian undertones that wrap up the story at the end. They claim to feel violated and call for amazon to put a stop to "misrepresenting the theme of a book" on the summary page. The irony is that they liked the book until they find out it's a christian book. that fact alone makes them loath it.
On the flip side, many Christians either 1) cry out that any fact of observation that contradicts their beliefs must be from satan himself or 2) try to come up with "alternative explanations." the best example of what i mean by these "alternative explanations" is creation science. The basis for the "scientific observations that lead to 6,000 year old earth conclusions" are steeped in lies and intended corruption of data and observation. Very unchristian if you ask me, yet many "christian scientists" (by that i mean those that promote "young earth" ideas) know they are being false and telling lies. People who want christian science education get angry when observation trumps… not words in a book – but what they were told growing up. And that's the irony. What Christians get mad about is not inconsistency with science and scripture – but what they THINK scripture says based on their own bias from improper theological education growing up.
The biggest irony is that both sides do not get it at all. they are mutually exclusive.
Science is the philosophy of observation. That the universe is knowable and therefore predictable. Ideas are tested with the intent of proving one's self wrong. Real science is based on hypothesis and experiment and thus science can only explain the universe as it is predictable.
Religion is the philosophy of faith. Someone/something tells you something and you will believe it upon faith alone. It is not based on reason, or observation, or historical fact.
Science does not preclude religion nor does religion preclude science. The only reason that there is conflict between the two is because of how some people choose to interpret them.