Self-respect ftw. If there's one lesson my mom told me that's really impacted my life, it's don't ever let someone tell you that you are inferior.
Heart-warming stories aside, I agree with Lance that some religious people really irritate me, mainly because they give the faith a bad rep. Whenever I say "I consider myself a religious person," people give me this supercilious look, like "Oh...you're one of them." Come on! I'm not a creationist, I'm not a Crusader! In fact they usually don't even hear me out. I'll say, "I believe that it's up to every person to make the choice and believe in what they believe in, and I believe that there is a God who has given us some tips on how to be a good person," and they'll be like 'whatever'. It's very annoying when I can't sit down and have an intelligent conversation. I have only had intelligent conversations with family, my priest, Mr. LoVullo (my 8th grade English teacher), a select-few kids that I've known for a short while, and WWII and Vietnam War veterans. Not with any kids at school, not with any teachers save Mr. LoVullo. And certainly not an intelligent religious debate (my priest gives me advice and guidance; we don't debate). I want to share knowledge and debate with people about controversial topics like abortion and gay marriage, about general knowledge things like WWII and how Hitler wasn't all that bad UNTIL he went clinically insane. But no! I'm surrounded by pot-heads who don't give a shit about their life, or with anti-social people who can't keep their nose out of a textbook because they are getting worked-up about a test that they should know the material for if they listened in class.
Ugh. Breather...
Sort of getting back on topic, people who call themselves religious who I have beef with. The number one spot goes to Creationists, and their "intelligent design" idea. Frankly, they gain support because they believe the literal meaning of the Bible (which is so narrow-minded it's sickening), and yet they spend their afternoons trying to make Creationism look like a science. It's a pseudo-science! That's why it isn't taught in science class like evolution is! Kind of like how we don't take the astrological point of view as the best way we can describe something. The fact that you can stump a Creationist and then they try and salvage the situation by making up lies or repeating exactly what they say (*cough cough COUGHCOUGHFLESHYCOUGH cough* loljk) proves my point that Creationists are just...so...PRETENTIOUS!
Oh and "intelligent design" also attracts those creepy "I've been raped by aliens" type people. Aliens probably do exist, but there are just so many factors that say "Aliens probably have never visited Earth and are probably no where near able to, whether in terms of proximity or technological development or both." My theory is this:
Aliens most likely do exist. It'd be so outrageous if Earth was the ONLY screw-up in the galaxy that produced life, even less odds for the universe...since we don't know how large the universe is. Considering what modern science gives us in that the universe is only a few billion years old, that's not a lot of time for planets that can yield life to form and then yield intelligent, sentient life. Hoping this species doesn't go extinct, whether by natural causes or by war, they will probably have a relatively primative space program that will explore only their star system for a long while. Perhaps there is no feasable way to travel out of your star system and colonize close-enough star systems. Granted there is a way, these aliens might be at the other side of the galaxy from Earth.
But what's so important about my theory is that humans are probably the or one of the forerunners, the first of the sentient beings in the galaxy. We, humans, might be that enigmatic alien that leaves cryptic and fantastic ruins and artifacts behind for primative civilizations to worship or examine. It's so cool to think about!
Wow. From high-school drop-outs to aliens. That deserves a medal.
