Sister: Jesus is my provider! He WILL provide.Since her conversion, my family's response has been mixed. On one hand, we're happy that she's happy. I mean, if brainwashed counts as happy, then so be it. As Dan Gilbert says, artificial happiness is no less effective or real than natural happiness. I should be happy that my sister has found a community that loves and supports her. I should be happy that my sister has found the motivation to cope with her various physical illnesses. I should be happy that my sister has found a way to be nice to the people in her life.
Me: Does he send you invoices?
On the other hand, for all the positives my sister has found, she has subscribed to many negative ideas. I want to state, for posterity, that my sister was raised by two loving (if not completely affectionate) parents in an upper-middle class household. She was given every tool she needed to succeed in life, including multiple opportunities at college. She was given every benefit I had been given, and, if I may claim, even more by way of her heavy-handed approach to getting what she wants from parents who would rather not hear her complain. This is all to say that she had a foundation in life when she needed it and should have been only grateful when reflecting on her life with her new friends. Things did not play out the way they should.
A few years ago, I was told she had gone into therapy for "family abuse." No doubt, the first step in accepting Jesus is to denounce the loving family that has supported you for your entire life. That was only the beginning. Monitoring her Facebook statuses has revealed that she has really denounced her entire reality. Blind devotion to Jesus. Anti-gay marriage comments. Anti-abortion comments. Now, Creationism.
Me: I am busting out laughing every 5 minutes or so this morning, each time I think about what I read on my way to work: A Creationist justification for incremental fossil records in unique layers of sediment. Can you grasp that someone believes, with all their heart, that the fossil records appear incrementally because th...e "Great Flood" wiped out certain animals first, then other animals second... etc? Wow...Meanwhile, on her own wall:
Sister: um yeah. I believe with all my heart that God created the heavens and the earth and all things in it including man and dinosours and then wiped every living thing out except what and who was in Noah's crazy boat. I'm giggling at you now :) I don't mind that you think I'm crazy
Me: But, sis, the explanation makes no sense to anyone who looks at it intelligently. If a great flood had wiped out all the animals, even if we assume the explanation that it killed certain animals before others, we would still see a statistical spread of SOME animals that were killed early (ie: mammals that were just not able to save themselves) but that is not the case. The fossil record shows that the fossils found in one layer of sedimentary rock (for argument's sake: jurassic) are unique to that layer and do not appear in any other layer found in any other part of the Earth. Mammal fossils, for example, are only found in the most recent layer. To assume that animals died from a flood in discreet waves is on the same level of intelligence as assuming computers work by magic.
The very fact that we are able to have this conversation while living across the country from each other is a testament to science, intelligence and critical thinking. Indeed, none of what we have today would be possible without first knowing the underlying principles of the physical universe. It is those principles that you are denying by claiming, as you have, that every living thing was killed by a flood. The Earth was not created in a week, either. We have radiometric dating to thank for this knowledge.
You're basically biting the hand that feeds you every time you turn the key to start your car's engine. The same science that propels you to 65mph in your hybrid Civic is the same science that disproves your biblical stories. If physics didn't work on the basic levels that we understand them to, we would not be able to develop any technology at all. The world WORKS because the scientific method has allowed us to make make machines that take advantage of physical laws that work the same EVERY SINGLE TIME. Why, then, would you ever claim that they DIDN'T work the way we know them to? To justify your little story.... See More
To claim that god put it all in place to play out this way is like constructing a 30 page report on why you didn't turn in your homework. Frankly, I'm very saddened by your abortion of the 30 years of knowledge you've gained throughout your life. You KNOW better, and it doesn't take a genius to see through the story. Too bad you've sipped the kool-aid and are just a mindless drone now.
(The conversation continues with my own friends getting into their own discussion...)
Sister: love my little conversations with my little bro. The latest was a very very interesting discussion about creationist views on fossil and sediment layers and the "great flood" but turned into what a biblical scholar is and a conclution that the bible is not insignificant. Not sure I caught all that went on. tee hee hee.More than common sense. My sister has joined the ranks of the section of the population that makes life suck for so many people. They fight gay marriage, preventing two perfectly good humans from enjoying the same benefits that they do. They fight abortion, feeding overpopulation, setting women's rights back several decades, and putting stress on a straining foster care and adoption system. They fight for creationism to be taught in school, putting science education to shame.
Sister's Friend: tell him to watch Ben steins movie EXPELLED
Me: Hi sister & sister's friends. I realize logic is not your strong suit, but if you ever want a lesson on how evolution works, I'll be glad to give you all the knowledge you need. Creationism and Intelligent Design are easily debunked using common sense and a little bit of basic science.
Sister, you SHOULD care that you sound crazy to me. I'm your brother, not some random asshole. Remember how you used to trust me? You used to go out to lunch with me and ask me for dating advice. I'm not an idiot; I'm the same smart, nerdy kid you used to make fun of. Listen to me when I say that you've bought into an idea that DEFIES intelligence. You're happy, and we're all glad for that, but I am so sad and disappointed that your happiness has come at the cost of common sense.
Fuck my sister's happiness. I want her back.
3 nibbles: