How to Win a Non-argument

(Art courtesy of www.BansheePubNYC.com.)

You gotta love people who just seek out arguments, attempting to provoke, instigate and incite at every turn.  Seriously, though, right?  They make us think every decision through.  What if you could just say you were an atheist and never have to consider the implications or the meaning of your non-belief?  I know I sure learned a lot about myself by being battered with the usual questions and counter-arguments.

But what about those people who practically make up arguments to have and then blindly hold their irrational ground? 

This morning, before the freaking sun even came up, a co-worker decided to offer up a somewhat-weak idea for a project.  I'm sure I had a matching somewhat-weak response as I reluctantly accepted the file at my desk.  I had a little time on my hands, so I planned to look into it anyway, but he immediately started arguing and demanding to know what was wrong with it.  This man, I think, was just upset at my initial lack of enthusiasm with his pitch and didn't even give me a chance to look into the idea.  As his voice raised and his hands started flying wildly around in the air (as if to propel his sarcastic tone), I waited patiently.  Then, I explained that I planned to look into this, give it a little more meat, then we could pursue the project.  He began yelling that I was giving him attitude, "the hand" and everything else, and that I could "stick it."  At this point, as I was sitting quietly, hands in my lap, I was amused to imagine what he must have been seeing in his mind.  I'm guessing that I resembled the traditional Banshee of Irish folklore with hair as red and wild as flames, flying over his head while shrieking so loudly that his ears bled and waving my bony hands just inches in front of his face to torment him.  He had clearly crossed his line into crazy anger - or hallucinations.  I said, "Excuse me, but I have been calm, patient, and have not moved.  You are raising your voice and you clearly have lost track of what is going on here.  I am looking into your project and I'll get back to you."  He yelled that I was putting up walls and think all of his ideas are awful and I rejected this without even looking at it.  I said, "I already told you that I accepted the idea and that I would be doing some support work to get it going.  At no point did I argue with you.  You need to leave my office, go back to your desk, and regain control of yourself and your attitude.  NOW."  He paused, maybe weighing the consequences of continuing his tirade, then stormed out, slamming my door.
 
(As a side note, no, I don't think that this is normal behavior for a working environment, but in this stressful line of work it had been protected as acceptable.  Yes, I do think this is frustrating and wish it would change, but until I actually run the entire company I can only control myself and conduct myself as an adult and professional and keep reminding the higher-ups that this is not acceptable behavior and not necessary to the creative process.  Sadly, if they ever listened, it would result in firing a majority of the staff.  Oh well.)
 
ANYWAY, the "moral" of the story is that the only way to win a non-argument is to refuse to participate at all.  Let go of caring about what they think of you and accept that your participation in this type of trap will not help the situation because they have already dismissed the chances of having any fruitful intellectual exchange.  They have already rigged the game so that they win as soon as you respond, at least in their own mind.  Be the adult and save your energy for a better forum.  The instigator will go home disappointed, knowing in the back of his mind that he lost - and made a fool of himself in the process because you called his bluff.  It also saves your own sanity.
 
S.A.M.
 
PS - This is a good strategy to keep in mind if you plan on talking to Creationists any time soon!

This is so disheartening.... (Also movie news!)

Check out this post from the blog "Small Dog. Big Stick." It is an explanation of the "true" story of creation.  If this was written by someone who truly believes it... wow.  There is no excuse to be so uneducated in this country.  I mean, this person isn't even educated in any church's (that I've heard of!) doctrine.  This is just a ridiculous, mean, mad-libs story.  Let's all hope this was just a prank.

HOWEVER, I think the chances of real sentiments such as those expressed in this letter would be greatly reduced if more people were exposed to the true stories of science, even in drama form.  ;)

Yes, Creation came.  I watched it immediately, of course!  My first impression:  What a sad tug-at-your-heartstrings story.  I was in tears at one point.  Darwin's struggle with the loss of his faith (and the loss of his daughter) was brilliantly tempered with his struggle to raise his children in a loving supportive way that was not the norm at the time.  I couldn't help but giggle at his daughter's joy when discovering a starfish - it was a portrait of a child's pure potential realized - a little girl learning. Scenes like that were set against a scene in which his doctor (which seemed to be one of the few fellow men of science whose opinion he trusted - in fact entrusted with his life) tells him his problem was a lack of faith.  I could imagine that he just had sickening feeling that he was completely alone in his struggle for his life - the he was the only one with enough of a scientific understanding of life to be responsible for his health.  Maybe he felt the guilt of taking his daughter to a doctor who was not all Darwin thought he had been.  The disappointment must have been excruciating.

In addition to the theological drama, the movie was filmed in a very compelling and haunting way.  The timeframe shifts, and you are never really certain if Anne is alive or dead, and you get the feeling that Darwin is experiencing the same incomprehension.

Really, it was an excellent true-story drama that was well-acted, well-produced and simply well-done.  I didn't find it any more controversial than an episode of House, and I really can't comprehend anymore what the problem is with releasing this movie.  It comes highly recommended by your Sweet Atheist Mistress.

S.A.M.

Progress, maybe...

I brought up the issue of the Creation movie in my Existialism class and the professor and classmates were all pretty surprised, to say the least. I told them about being able to purchase the blu-ray at Barnes&Noble, and this morning they appear to me temporarily sold out. Now, maybe they only had that one in stock, but I doubt that, and a number of people said they intended to check it out. Yay! Maybe a small victory. I have also organized two (maybe three) viewing parties. Wish me luck!

S.A.M.

Some people cry over romantic movies... I cry over scientific ones.

A while ago, a friend told me that she heard an NPR interview about a movie depicting Charles Darwin's life. I was excited, but never heard anything more. I decided to try to find out what happened and I found this.

In a nutshell, it is an article from England about how no distributor in the US would TOUCH the movie Creation, fearing controversy and backlash. Yes, the life of a 19th century naturalist is way too hot for the American public to handle. This movie, which has gotten great reviews around the world, won't ever be seen or heard about by most Americans because we are so afraid of being offended (or confronted with a view that might clash with someone's religion) that we are doing a better job of censoring ourselves than the FCC. Think about it - we live in the country where a movie showing (in gory detail) the execution of Jesus Christ or a movie about college-age kids getting naked and sleeping with each other is acceptable. However, a scientist's struggle between science and faith is supposedly something we can't handle.

This isn't some B-movie or documentary that Americans wouldn't turn out for anyway. It stars a number of actors and actresses that Americans would recognize. The trailer looks like one of those big-grossing dramas about a family facing a difficult situation. It is a TRUE STORY, too. But apparently Americans can't handle reality.

The article cites a recent poll showing that less than 40% of Americans believe that evolution is true. I blushed with embarrassment when I read that. I have to wonder if this is how the rest of the developed world sees us - as a religious country that eagerly ignores modern science and facts in favor of the beliefs of centuries ago. I was ashamed to be lumped in with this. I talked to friends (who DO accept evolution as true - they are educated, after all) who were surprised with the statistic, and generally angry about the fact that they had never even heard about this movie that they can't see.

I can't find a region 1 DVD available anywhere online, but I'm efforting a blu-ray, and I plan to have a viewing party.

And I thought that shows like House and Bones were making progress... (sigh) Clearly, I have been overly-optimistic.

S.A.M.

I was SO excited about the Census... THEN...

I did have a good reason for being so excited about a nosey multiple choice quiz about my life. This will be the first time that *I* can fill out the answers about myself personally, and I was just beaming with the possibility of checking a little box labeled "Atheist." In my mind, this was going to be a landmark year for atheists - more of us in America than ever before! Things are different than they were even 10 years ago and it has become more socially acceptable to admit to being a non-theist. I even had this hazy daydream about my ancestors looking me up on Ancestry.com 100 years in the future and smiling when they came across the first atheist in the family.

THEN, this morning, while looking for 2000's "religious views" numbers to post in this blog, I discovered that the Census does not ask for religious affiliation data citing the separation of church and state. ReligiousTolerance.org explains that the government gets their information from the ARIS study - the "American Religious Identification Survey." (When do I get THIS survey??) Still, things are hopeful for atheists. In the event that any of you are curious about the 2001 ARIS results:

14.1% do not follow any organized religion. This is an unusually rapid increase -- almost doubling -- from only 8% in 1990. There are more Americans who say they are not affiliated with any organized religion than there are Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans combined.

That number rose to 15% in 2008. Admittedly, that last jump isn't quite as dramatic, but it's still moving in the right direction.

And pop-culture trends really help the cause. You know how Will & Grace made it "okay" to be gay on TV? More people than ever were exposed to gay issues in their living room -many of them people who might never have to think about those issues otherwise. Sometimes it seems hard to remember really how groundbreaking that show was. Well, now House and Bones are among the most popular prime time shows - both featuring lead characters who are declared atheists. The shows openly discuss atheist and religious issues. (These shows, in my opinion, deserve their own future blog posts...) Both Brennan and House are brilliant people at the tops of their fields which stays true to the statistical likelihood for educated people to be atheists. Somehow they solve crimes and save lives without any other-worldly help - they are "Good Without God" and not looking back. Hopefully someday it can slip my mind that these shows were groundbreaking as well. Until then, I'll keep my fingers crossed that ARIS gives me a call.

So... Nietzsche's NOT evil??

I imagine I'm not the only person out there who, for a long time, knew of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche but had this strange vague impression that he stood for "nothingness." I knew he said useful things such as, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger," and "God is dead." Maybe he hated women? Someone once told me that Ayn Rand studied Nietzsche and hated him. Other than that, I was just not exposed.

So, imagine my surprise when I actually studied him in a Philosophy class. I'm working my way into a Philosophy Grad program, and I've had a life-long love of philosophy, but I just never read much existentialism. I blame Kant. I attempted to read him in the budding days of my interest and was left utterly confused by his convoluted "Critique of Pure Reason" (which CLEARLY requires prerequisites). Basically, at that point, Nietzsche became one of those people who don't even believe in reality or logic.

I was lucky enough to get an Existentialism professor who had written a lot about Nietzsche and had a passion for his philosophy. His introduction to this part of our class included words such as "life-affirming" and "positive atheist." The prof went on to talk about how Nietzsche's goal was to OVERCOME Nihilism. What?? I thought he invented the stuff!

Soon, I felt like I was reading letters from a long lost friend. I felt a special bond between myself and the long-dead writer because he seemed to be writing about Atheism from my perspective. He talked about the detrimental qualities of religion, and the will to power seemed to be a poetic and genius explanation of the world as it is. Things I had often felt in my heart were suddenly appearing on these pages of 100-year-old text. For the first few weeks I wished that I could have read his work much sooner in my life. For the past few weeks, I have been thankful that we were able to "meet" when I was at a more intellectually-mature age - otherwise, the 14-year-old me might have run off to join some Nietzsche cult. Throughout the class, I learned the actual meaning of Nihilism, and Nietzsche's desire to move beyond that into a life in which one creates their own values and meaning for life. He is even an idealist at times.

We actually discussed Nietzsche's influence (and it is a huge one) on Ayn Rand, and I found myself wondering if maybe she misinterpreted some ideas that brought her to despise him. (My professor seems to think this was the case.) Hey - I can't blame her - I misinterpreted all existentialists for a long time. Their differences, at least, are far fewer than I had been lead to believe and their similarities striking.

Most of all, this was such a FUN part of the class. Yay for knowledge! :)

S.A.M.

Has America DEvolved?

I was reading an excerpt from Richard Dawkin's upcoming book, "The Greatest Show on Earth," and was floored by this disturbing fact:

"More than 40 per cent of Americans deny that humans evolved from other animals,
and think that we - and by implication all of life - were created by God within
the last 10,000 years."

Maybe I was naive to imagine that America was smarter than that. At LEAST I would have thought that, while religious, a pretty high majorty of the country at least attended a high school biology class. I was sent to 13 years of catholic schooling and I came out having learned about Darwin's theories. I don't ever actually recall being told that Intelligent Design was an option. I know ID has really taken off in the past 10 years or so, but... wow.