Many years ago while attending a lecture on the subject of Astrophysics in the hall of local university; I met one of the most interesting Astrophysicists that I had met to date. The main subject of the speaker that evening was exploring why the observed rotation of the stars in some galaxies, didn’t seem to be following the laws of gravity contained in the Theory of Relativity. And at the close of the lecture, many of us started to mingle around the hall, and then breaking off into smaller groups. as I circulated around the small groups of scientists, while seeking clarification of one of the points that was leading to this new theory, while at the same time, I was trying to remain discreet as to not come off sounding like a complete moron, I found myself ending up in a debate with about 6 others over the subject of the Greek God(s).
I thought that at some point in the discussion, that I might be able to slip in my question, and without looking like a idiot – and as those who were engaged in the other debates started spilling outside of the hall, we all decided to head off to a nearby bar for drinks and to continue our discussion.
When our discussion resumed at the bar, I found this guy’s knowledge of Greek Mythology simply fascinating. You could name a Greek God, and this guy could tell you everything about that particular God, and even give you the timeline in Greek history. This guy had been involved in researching the connections between the old God(s) of Greek Mythology, and the New-God(s) of the desert, and their shared attributes for about 20 years – and the timeline of when these old God(s) of Greek Mythology, had began morphing into the new God(s) of the desert – including the new Jewish "God" in the bible, and his "son" "Jesus" came into being as well.
At some point in our conversation, one of the other guys in our group asked a simple but relevant question: he wondered just how many of those who proclaim to be Christians, actually understand that their entire religion evolved from mythology, including the God(s) from a whole host of other dead-religions? As we were all sitting there at the bar, while pondering his question, two other guys who seemed to have been overhearing our conversation while playing pool, slammed down their pool sticks on the on the pool table, and then they approached our group – one of them exclaiming: “what are you assholes saying, that my god isn’t real?” at this point, the bartender who had also been engaged in our conversation, and knew both of these guys by their first names, told both of them that they could either join in the conversation in a civil manner, return to their pool game, or get the fuck out of the bar. The one who had responded then said: ‘I’ll just leave then, before I start kicking some devil worshiping ass” – note; there was no mention of “Satan” or “Devils” at any time in our conversation?
The Christian, who remained, sat there listening intensively to our discussion, while the bartender explained that he had never even thought of doing this of type research, and he didn’t even know that the history of all those other 1000s of gods was even available. He then said that he had become interested enough to look into this matter himself.
Meanwhile, the pool playing Christian, who had joined in our discussion had become visible upset – he then exclaimed: “all of that stuff that was written about all of those other gods, was written by Satan to fool us into questioning whether or not Jesus is the one true god,” and he warned the bartender, that even doing that type of research, would mean that he would be questioning the truth of our one true god (Jesus). And that questioning would land him in hell.
I learned that night that you simply can’t logically debate reality with someone of religious faith when their only arguments come from emotions, and most are not even willing to look at real facts.
I ran into the bartender a few months later in a health-food and supplement store on the same AVE. as the bar was located. He thanked me and the others, for opening up his eyes to the reality that his Christian faith was based around nothing more than old stories being told as new and true stories – and that he now understands that there are no true gods - there are only true cods!
Have any of you had a similar experience – and would you try and engage in debate with someone as deluded as the pool playing Christian….I didn’t?
