Since my current job requires me to be awake at 5:30 AM, I am up by 6:30 or 7:00 every morning on my days off. I have been cleaning the house all morning. As I sat down to take a break from mopping the floors, the doorbell rang. "Who could that be?" I thought. As soon as I peered out the door I knew who it was; the Friendly Neighboorhood Jehovah's Witness. She stood at my doorstep bible in head and dressed in her black suede shoes, dark green sweater, and a calf-length skirt.
"Hello, I am a Friendly Neighboorhood Jehovah Witness. I would like to share with you the joy of a Bible verse!"
"No thanks, I do not believe in God or any diety."
The Witness laughs. "And, dear, can you tell me why? Is your mom or dad home?"
"Uh, I am almost 23, I do not live with my parents. I do not believe in God because there is no evidence. I received a degree in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. We know from the fossil record, morphology, and molecular biology that evolution is fact. Life arose a long time ago, 3.8 billion years ago and we know from fossils that the human family only arose around 2 million years ago."
She continues to laugh and smile, a sort of generic, fake smile. "Well dear, carbon dating is inaccurate. Man only arose 6000 years ago."
"Wait, what? Carbon dating is not inaccurate."
"Actually, it is," says the Witness matter-of-factly, "DNA is a much better dating technique. I just saw the Dead Seas Scroll at the Science Museum..."
"Can you explain to me how to date with DNA and the supposed error of carbon dating?"
"Well, the Bible says that Jehovah created man...."
And the conversation continued like this, the Witness had a lousy case. She did not make that much sense and contradicted herself. She informed me that God gave me a conscious. I told her that natural selection gave me a big brain and that an awareness of self is not restricted to humans. Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and cetaceans (dolphins and whales, who are very intelligent) all have a "sense of self". She just "no" and changed the subject. It was then that I told her I did not want to talk to her anymore and that she should think about some of the things I said (an old universe, natural selection, etc). Her response?
"That will NEVER shake my faith."
I am so ready to move to Texas and start graduate school.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think that even when you move down to Texas you will have plenty of JWs knocking at your door. But, I agree, its ridiculous that for some people no amount of reason or evidence will shake their beliefs.
ReplyDelete