My sister had bought me a book from the U.S. and my aunt was kind enough to bring it back home. The book is written by a prominent science figure who is also an atheist. My aunt, who is a devout Christian, was quick in informing my mom and dad about the book I bought. Then, on Sunday morning last week, she and I had a rather one-sided discussion on God (the Christian one, of course).
She initiated the conversation by saying that I had better not believe that God does not exist. Then, some kind of wisdom followed. She said that no matter how smart people are, they can lose everything to a mysterious disease that can strike them lame from the neck downwards. My mother then attempted to provide proof by telling me that the wife of a doctor who was as pretty as an actress got struck by an illness that gave her some kind of a stroke.
The discussion continued with another anecdote that an intelligent professor in China was riding along a paddy field when suddenly she fell down and as she observed a sprouting paddy plant, realized that the plant could not grow in the first place without some kind of divine intervention. What followed was even more surprising, a child in China was resurrected by a reverend. The holy man reportedly whispered “Chi lai”, a chinese for “rise up”, and the child got up onto his feet. The last anecdote made me raise my eyebrows, though.
When my aunt implied that I should be religious because somebody’s wife had a stroke, I could barely hold my grin. But in the last story, she told me that the “founder” of evolution, which I hoped she meant Charles Darwin or Alfred Russell Wallace had repented on his deathbed. This made me unhappy. Less than five minutes on the Internet should provide the fact that Charles Darwin never repented. And while I found no details of whether Alfred Wallace died a born again Christian, I am confident that he was not.
I must honestly say that I felt warm and fuzzy when she told me about those people in China tumbling all over and suddenly found God (still the Christian one). If these anecdotes are true then I congratulate them. For they are very lucky to be able to feel blessed and taken care of their whole lives without even a speck of evidence.
Sadly, the story of the repenting Charles Darwin undid all those nice feelings I had. I can be easily swayed and made sympathetic towards Christianity on the basis of real life testimonials or even just a melodious Christian song. But for me, false information followed by a twisted logic just stood out like a piece of shit on a sore thumb!
She was suggesting that if somebody famous for a theory not in favor of religion later on declares that they repent or become religious, then automatically the theory becomes wrong. “Evolution is wrong because the man who coined it repented in his deathbed and regretted having so many followers!”, how immature!
My aunt is a strong-willed, witty, and incredibly smart woman. I believe that she had the best intention and the highest sincerity in persuading me to be religious again, but this one argument she gave me was just plain stupid. I am sad that she maybe felt that she does not need to check her reasoning and search for evidence when it comes to asserting religious beliefs.
Nevertheless, I am entertained by her efforts and I believe I shall be amused for a long, long time as that virus of the mind called religion, festering inside our mothers and aunts, manifests as ridiculous behaviors and even more ridiculous reasoning.
In conclusion, I am happy that my aunt had spent some time with me and I wait for her to bring me yet another collection of unproven anecdotes, pseudoscience, holy book quotes, or zealous song lyrics. In waiting, I think I will read a good book and hope that next time Darwin is left out of her “God Loves You” parcel.
Amen.
