Thursday, February 08, 2007 . 2/08/2007
My dad is a lost cause. It's not like I'm trying to "convert" him to being an atheist, I'm just trying to open his eyes a bit more. But I don't think that's possible.Lastnight I showed him the documentary Rivals of Jesus, and he only watched the first three minutes or so before saying he didn't want to watch it. I asked him why not, and he said he didn't care. Quite amazing really, that he doesn't care about the history of his own religion.
An argument followed, and my mom kept saying shit about opinions, and out of curiosity I asked both my parents if they thought evolution was real. My mom said yes, and that she thinks it's "a bit of both". I told her to leave the intelligent design crud out of this, and then asked my dad if he thought evolution was real. I didn't get a direct response, as is typical of him. I said that not accepting the theory of evolution is like not accepting the theory of gravity, to which he promptly replied "GRAVITY ISN'T A THEORY!!". I asked if he even knew what a scientific theory was, and he asked me the same thing. I rolled my eyes and kept telling him that a theory was the closest thing to fact in the scientific sense of the word, and he just kept laughing and smiling at me like a bigot. As always.
A little later I showed him the documentary by Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion. He refused to watch it, and I asked if he even knew who Richard Dawkins was. He said no, and I told him who he was. He said that he doesn't hold much respect for scientists, the kind that claim that "humans evolved from fish". I didn't think to say it at the time, but does he really find that any less credible than a magical man in the sky?
I kept crying out of frustration during the whole argument. As always, I meant for it to be a rational conversation, but it's just impossible when the person you're discussing something with knows absolutely nothing about science. Sure, he claims to know everything, like when I showed him the definition of the scientific theory he said he already knew all of that. Which brings us back to the theory of gravity.
He picked up a book and then dropped it, then said "There, gravity. It's not a theory". My dad is just so ignorant, and no matter how much I told him he wouldn't listen. I could say the same thing for evolution, display the evolving of birds and say "there, evolution". He probably would have said something like "it's not certain if evolution exists" or some other bullshit.
It should also be noted that my dad thinks this Noah actually built an ark that housed all 50,000+ species. He says it's because peices of the ark have been found. All I could do was stare at him in utter disbelief.
To any of you debaters out there who debate with ignorant people like this, I congratulate you. I don't know how you do it. Of course, it would probably help if I was older and had a docterate in science or something.. no one is going to listen to a mere 16-year-old about the theory of evolution and gravity, much less the impossibility that a god exists. They'll probably just think I'm some "spiritually troubled teen". I always knew my disadvantage, which is why I suggested to my dad that he ask a profesor of science for conformation for the things I bring up (he works at a university in the tech department). He said he didn't need to, to which I said "I don't care if you think you're right, just do it". I then walked out of the room, too exhausted to continue.
Yet despite these "fights", we always seem to sort of forget them. The next day, or even in the next hour, everything returns to normal. 2 Comments -
Blah...
You know you're right Drea, let him think whatever he wants, you know YOU are RIGHT !
By 
, at
7:31 AM
I have a feeling this is sarcastic. The thing is, I never said, nor do I think, that I am better than my dad or anyone else, which you seem to be implying..
Next time, try leaving a more informative comment.
