Cigarettes And Creationism
– Can I have a Dumaurier light 20’s king size please?
– What do you believe in?
Let’s face it, I rarely get what I want when I go to the corner store.
The shop assistant (or the owner, cause as far as I know he is here from 6:00 am to 12:00 am) looks up at me and obviously expects an answer. An Arabic language newspaper opened on the counter and no sign of him reaching for my cigarettes tells me I’m in for a philosophical moment.
– Well, actually, I don’t believe in much. Mankind maybe… on my good days.
– What religion are you, my friend?
– None, really. I’m an atheist.
– Catholic, right? Catholic you must be.
– Er… atheist, really. Like, I don’t believe in a God.
Gosh, I smoke, you can almost see my (black) bra though the thin (white) tee-shirt I put on to walk the 10 meters to the convenience store, and you won’t see me up before noon on Sundays — don’t you have a clue?!
– But you’re parents, catholics, right my friend?
– Nope. Atheists as well.
– Your grand-parents? Religion?
– Atheists. Well, they might have stepped into a church once in a while given it wasn’t that popular to live a life without a God at the time, but basically, they don’t believe.
– But…
– Nor did my great-grand parents as far as I know.
I cut him off before he gets a chance to realize that, indeed, my whole family was probably burning in hell.
– Can I ask a question, my friend? Who bore you?
I thought this guy was an engineer. Didn’t he take biology classes in his curriculum?
– My mother…
– And who bore your mother?
– My grand-mother…
What’s with genealogy today?
– And if you come back back far far in time, who bore the first person here on earth?
– Science?
– God!
We both looked at each other and laughed. I finally get my cigarettes (after I promised to think about the first person who born the first person).
I thought about it on the way back. The idea of a God isn’t stupid to me, but I just don’t believe. Granted, I can’t explain all the things surrounding me. Honestly, the Big Bang theory is fascinating but I’m not much of a scientist, so I probably wouldn’t be able to back it up that far. However, I truly believe in science. I know that there are still mysteries around us. I know that everything can’t be explain rationally — either because it’s too early, or because there’s still a part of “random” and “coincidences” in our lives, in our world. But giving a God the full benefit of creating us sounds like patching up a kid’s story on a grown-up matter.
Why am I writing this post already? Oh yeah. Because I’m glad I live in Canada, a country so multicultural, with so many beliefs and backgrounds, so many cultures and religions, so many people of different origins and languages… and above all, because I’m glad to live in a country where we can talk about our differences without killing each other. Sounds anecdotal? Maybe. But it means a lot to me.
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Tagged with: Canada Canadian News and Trends Wake Up Comrade (Left-Wing Rant)
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Lisa: and I ALWAYS have conversation with perfect strangers… same, I’m always the one people ask for directions in the street, or for the time. I must look innocent
Kyh: wow, I’m amazed at the way you explain your country so well! Thanks so much for all these infos.
I’ve heard of Malaysia as a fairly peaceful country, and yes, multicultural. I’m surprised there are basically two laws, the Sharia and the non-Muslims law. I guess if you’re born Muslim you have to be a Muslim then according to the law… is there any tension between the communities? How about freedom of speech, for both Muslims and non-Muslims?
Sorry for all my questions, but you write and explain well
Keshi: I didn’t know you were from Sri Lanka — well, obviously I figured out you were Indian, but I didn’t know from which place specifically. And I totally agree with you
Shantanu: I try to avoid religion as well, but the topic is so fascinating to me… same as with politics. But I try to be as unbiased or respectful that I can, and worse case scenario, blame it on the cultural difference!
NorthBayPhotos: WHO??? Please, do not write the team-which-name-shouldn’t-be-mention-again on this blog…
Max: I must be a weird breed of atheist
I’m lucky to know smart people who believe in God, so I guess it helped not to have too many prejudices. I think we all need to believe in something… I believe in a lot of things, mankind, laws, culture, education etc. So if you believe in an old wise man, it doesn’t bother me.
What would I need to believe? Not sure. Even seeing God himself probably wouldn’t make me believe to be honest… because one of the reason I don’t believe (or don’t want to) is that I like the idea I’m in charge of my destiny. That said, I can be a bit superstitious as well…
My my, this is complicated!
Aiglee: oh, you’d probably have fun like I did… it will, happen to you, you’ll see! And.. welcome to Canada (very soon!)
Ethnic relations are generally peaceful. There sure are tensions, but only in political levels where the politicians argue against each other regarding ethnic issues. As for the mass, ntg big occurs.
Freedom of speech is quite restricted in Malaysia. The reason given is to “avoid playing the emotional cards among Malaysians and to safeguard the sensibilities of each ethnic group/religion in Malaysia”. And if Muslims and non-Muslims were to fight against each other, the non-Muslims will definitely lose due to their smaller population as well as the Malays’ (Muslims) political supremacy in Malaysia.
kyh’s last blog post..I wish to go back to…
“Who bore you?“
The correct answer for that question is,
“You. You bore me to death.”
It makes me mad when people who expect you to respect their religion have no respect for your beliefs as an atheist. It happens to me so many times. When I am back in India, I met a lot of people who were unhappy that I was not embarrassed about my atheist beliefs.
You have a lot more patience than I do, for carrying that conversation!
Twisted DNA’s last blog post..Pregnant Pondering
Well, this is WAY late, but I’ve only just gotten here…
This is a great post. Inspired me to do a little copy-and-pasting:
“Any intellectually honest person will admit that he does not know why the universe exists. Scientists, of course, readily admit their ignorance on this point. Religious believers do not. One of the monumental ironies of religious discourse can be appreciated in the frequency with which people of faith praise themselves for their humility, while condemning scientists and other non-believers for their intellectual arrogance. There is, in fact, no worldview more reprehensible in its arrogance than that of a religious believer: the creator of the universe takes an interest in me, approves of me, loves me, and will reward me after death; my current beliefs, drawn from scripture, will remain the best statement of the truth until the end of the world; everyone who disagress with me will spend eternity in hell… An average Christian, in an average church, listening to an average Sunday sermon has achieved a level of arrogance simply unimaginable in scientific discourse — and there have been some extraordinarily arrogant scientists.”
–Sam Harris
Holds true even if you take out the hell bit, seeing that it’s out of style these days…
Joy’s last blog post..trippy