Sun Protection
At a party, a drunk girl tried to convert me by saying that people lived to 900 years in the Bible because after the Flood, the sky was cloudy, the sun wasn’t strong, and that’s why people didn’t get skin cancer. I was tipsy too, but she said it so seriously I instantly sobered up.
The Mountains
A colleague of mine declared he doesn’t believe in how mountains form—neither block nor fold mountains, nor tectonic plate movements. When we asked why, he said it’s easier for him to accept that God just created the mountains, period.
The Scripture
During a debate with a classmate about evolution versus creation—since he believed evolution was made up and life started with Adam and Eve—he dismissed my points by saying he wouldn’t argue further because I hadn’t read the Bible. I told him I’d read parts of it and knew he hadn’t either! He didn’t deny it. He said it didn’t matter because he believed anyway, and I didn’t.
The Buraq
Once I asked a Muslim guy if he really believed in the Buraq (a mythical creature in Islam, with a human face and four legs, who flew the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem through Heaven in one night). He said yes, because the Buraq was created from lightning. For him, that was a perfectly reasonable explanation for a winged, human-headed Pegasus moving at the speed of light.
The Show
In an American evangelist radio show, a caller said constellations are the strongest proof of God’s existence because “who else could arrange stars into constellations like that?” The host enthusiastically agreed.
The Trick
"God planted prehistoric fossils in the earth to trick us." This was a coworker’s explanation for dinosaurs.
We asked what the point of the trick was. She said, “To make us believe the Earth is older than five thousand years.” Honestly, none of us had a response to that.
Prayer
My mother-in-law said only those who prayed survived the tsunami in Thailand, and everyone else died because they were sinners, “just like Noah and the Flood.” I asked if that meant babies who died then must have committed many sins to deserve death by the wave. She firmly said yes.
In Their Dreams
My cousin is deeply religious but also one of the most selfish and awful people I know. I asked if all the people who never knew Christianity—like Native Americans—went straight to hell. He said he’s sure God appeared to them in their dreams, and only those who didn’t accept Him in their hearts ended up in hell.
The Family Tree
I was a caretaker at a Christian camp, and when the young people found out I didn’t believe in God, they laughed and joked that I must think I’m a cousin of a monkey.
Understanding
One uncle flat-out told me he was never good at biology and can’t grasp how “a child comes from nothing inside a woman,” so he’s convinced that God places the baby there.
Cover photo: diignat/istockphoto.com
