*breathe*
Sometimes I have to breath and make myself not care about what fundamentalism is doing to this world. In the last two days Ive found two of my close friends reading material that basically says "atheists/those of other religions are evil and should be eradicated. Also, the use of political force is a necessary means to an end in bringing about christ's work."
I dont know how, but I never encountered this sort of christianity in Flint. I heard horror stories sure, but pretty much, the most christian person I knew had a "well, I'll pray for you" reaction to finding out I don't really believe in god. Which is actually quite nice, as the sentiment really is "I want the best for you." The religiosity of it is a bit much, but it's not particularly invasive or mean spirited. What I've seen from those around me now is downright...hateful. I have no morals? Nothing means anything to me? I deserve to rot in hell? I should be marked as a danger to society? (all of these are claims I've seen in the past week)
Also, my idea for a Statistics project was rejected by a team member because I had shown a significant, positive correlation between condom prevalence in a country and it's life expectancy. It "interfered with her sensibilities." I believe some of her words were "I disagree with that." She also disagreed with including "adolescent fertility rates" and "total fertility," also significant correlations (pretty much, the more contraceptive use and the less babies people have, the healthier the country...a few caveats with that interpretation, but that's what she was running from). I'm sorry reality impinges on your religion, it must be horrible for you. We'll take every controversial part out of the model, leaving only density of physicians and access to clean water in it, even though yes, contraceptives made for more of the model than even those obvious parts did.
And then theres the everypittstudent.com thing. Tons of posters, tons of chalk messages on the ground, just saying everypittstudent.com. And what is it? An evangelical christian missionary site. I'm a bit upset about it. For one, I was thinking it was some kind of forum for discussing issues around campus. Which, if you think about it, is a pretty good idea. A message board to talk about things like what should the program council be doing, what we'd like to see from PittArts, comments on how things are managed..I think I should suggest this. But its not that, its this other thing. Which seems kinda sneaky and dishonest in the first place, but then seems to imply that every pitt student should be a christian. And really, a lot of us know what we believe and to make such a broad statement is rather demeaning and patronizing. I don't know if this genuinely upsets me or if I'm just taking out my frustration about the number of my friends who seem to think I'm subhuman out on these fliers by altering them to say things like "Not everypitstudent is a christian" and "everypittstudent will be devoured when the old ones rise."
I dont know how, but I never encountered this sort of christianity in Flint. I heard horror stories sure, but pretty much, the most christian person I knew had a "well, I'll pray for you" reaction to finding out I don't really believe in god. Which is actually quite nice, as the sentiment really is "I want the best for you." The religiosity of it is a bit much, but it's not particularly invasive or mean spirited. What I've seen from those around me now is downright...hateful. I have no morals? Nothing means anything to me? I deserve to rot in hell? I should be marked as a danger to society? (all of these are claims I've seen in the past week)
Also, my idea for a Statistics project was rejected by a team member because I had shown a significant, positive correlation between condom prevalence in a country and it's life expectancy. It "interfered with her sensibilities." I believe some of her words were "I disagree with that." She also disagreed with including "adolescent fertility rates" and "total fertility," also significant correlations (pretty much, the more contraceptive use and the less babies people have, the healthier the country...a few caveats with that interpretation, but that's what she was running from). I'm sorry reality impinges on your religion, it must be horrible for you. We'll take every controversial part out of the model, leaving only density of physicians and access to clean water in it, even though yes, contraceptives made for more of the model than even those obvious parts did.
And then theres the everypittstudent.com thing. Tons of posters, tons of chalk messages on the ground, just saying everypittstudent.com. And what is it? An evangelical christian missionary site. I'm a bit upset about it. For one, I was thinking it was some kind of forum for discussing issues around campus. Which, if you think about it, is a pretty good idea. A message board to talk about things like what should the program council be doing, what we'd like to see from PittArts, comments on how things are managed..I think I should suggest this. But its not that, its this other thing. Which seems kinda sneaky and dishonest in the first place, but then seems to imply that every pitt student should be a christian. And really, a lot of us know what we believe and to make such a broad statement is rather demeaning and patronizing. I don't know if this genuinely upsets me or if I'm just taking out my frustration about the number of my friends who seem to think I'm subhuman out on these fliers by altering them to say things like "Not everypitstudent is a christian" and "everypittstudent will be devoured when the old ones rise."