When I was a kid I had this very dear friend. She was beautiful, and stunningly brilliant. She excelled in science, particularly biology. She sailed through college, and was offered a full ride to medical school. Her focus was going to be on research. But she had come from a troubled home, and at some point in her senior year she got hooked up with this fundamentalist, “every word in the bible is literal truth” Christian church. Upshot — she didn’t go to medical school because her pastor told her that god’s path for a woman was marriage and children and that god did not approve of woman having careers. For a few years she kept coming by to visit and try to convert me, and save my soul from hell. I finally had to get harsh to make her go away. It pained me because we had been very close, but she had become unrecognizable. She was the one who was agonizing over genetic research because it’s not mentioned in the bible. I rather acidly pointed out that the bible also doesn’t mention zippers, but she used them. That was about the time she gave up on my soul.
Fast forward to today. I have good friend who is a professor of parasitology. He had an absolutely brilliant Navajo woman student who was going for her PhD. But she’s quit, and now she may bo to law school instead. Why? Because the old medicine men were angry at the research she was doing, and told her that the “sea people” were unhappy with her because she was killing specimens to do her research, and she had to stop. Now first of all we’re in the middle of the fricken New Mexico desert. What sea people?
So my friend gave her tasks that didn’t require her to kill anything so the sea people could just calm the hell down. He asked her to collect specimens on the reservation, research that could help people. But the medicine men said no to that too. Apparently when she collected samples it pissed off the canyon spirits. Then brow beat her to the point that she finally just quit the program.
Another mind lost to us. And what if she doesn’t get into law school? Clearly she’s very smart, but her heart probably won’t be in this new career path.
So, yeah, I get really hostile when I see religion used as a bludgeon to kill peoples goals and dreams.
Depressingly accurate video, Wolf. And if we take any piece of ground on the planet the same sad history could be recounted. I keep reminding myself that we haven’t been out of the trees all that long. Maybe someday we’ll get past the tribalism.
Check out this article about the GOP representative to the House who is on the Science Committee who says that “God’s word is true. I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell,” You can read the whole article here. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/06/paul-broun-evolution-big-bang_n_1944808.html
Regarding your friend and the student of your friend… how sad. Unfortunately, logic and reason have no place in the lives of those people. I just hope that the potential law student can reason outside the tenets of her religious faith, unlike the representative referenced in the other comment.
What do we do with these primitive religious ideas? I must admit it is beyond me. I do know that religion has stunted and ruined so many capable minds and free souls. When I think of the untold millions of hours wasted on theological foolishness, it makes me cringe. To see a brilliant mind wasted is very sad. Our religions are a mix of voodoo and miraculous clap-trap.
What do we do with these primitive religious ideas? I must admit it is beyond me. I do know that religion has stunted and ruined so many capable minds and free spirits. When I think of the untold millions of hours wasted on theological foolishness, it makes me cringe. To see a brilliant mind wasted is very sad. Our religions are a mix of voodoo and miraculous clap-trap.
While Googling your bibliography, I stumbled upon your blog and absolutely adore this post and admire you for unequivocally stating your opinions on the subject. It’s really a sign of the changing times that atheists/skeptics can state their opinions so publicly.
By the way, the book of yours I’m reading now is one of your earliest, apparently – the contemporary romance [i]Santa Fe[/i] which I found in a used book store in Bernalillo. I’m loving it, and it’s totally satisfying my itch to read an authentic-sounding romance that takes place in New Mexico! I’ve tried several NM romances and all have fallen woefully short of the mark, but it’s clear that you [b]know [/b]NM. SF/Fantasy is not my genre at all, but I wanted to let you know that your earlier effort is certainly appreciated, and I’ll be searching out your other contemporary romance [i]High Stakes[/i], too.
Hi, Kerrie, welcome. Thank you for the kind words, and yeah, I think skeptics are getting braver. I, mean, nobody can fire me over being an atheist so I just lay out there. As I’ve said on my Facebook wall — people can believe any damn crazy thing they want. They just don’t get to push it on me, or make laws based on whatever dictates their Sky Daddy might have about human behavior. If you like Santa Fe, you might like my Edge books which are me taking on the Religious Right and their power in this country.