(no subject)
Today was...interesting.
I went to the mall with my mom and sister because there has been a dearth of pants for me to wear lately. They all decided to get worn out in the butt at the same time and rip. Normally I don't have much fun shopping, especially with my mom and sister, but for some reason we had fun today, talking a lot more than normal and joking around and stuff.
Then we went to Borders. Normally Borders is much more relaxing to go to with my family because the prospect of getting more great books to read relaxes me and talking with my mom about literature is fun, because I always find out she knows more about it than I think. I got Franny and Zoey, because I don't know what to think about J. D. Salinger after Reading the Catcher in the Rye, which I had mixed feelings about. Then I asked her if I could get one more book, and she happily agreed. One thing my mom has never cringed at spending money on for me is books. I bet I could ask her if she would buy me 20 books at a time and she'd do it.
Not today though. Recently I've been listening to the audio book of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, but I've found it's hard to comprehend everything, especially the complex thought experiments he posits, without a physical text in front of me. So I wanted to buy it to read along with the audio book and also support him and his ideas, which I agree with. When I showed her The God Delusion, her faced contorted in ugly horror and then she glared at me. "You expect me to pay for THAT?". I did, but only because she told me she would buy me another book. We argued for a minute and then I agreed to pay for it, but she would need to loan me a dollar because the book was 16 dollars and I didn't have enough for tax. Still she refused! Here's a woman I've lived with all my life, who has for my entire life taught me to live without prejudice, telling me that the accumulation of knowledge (for that's all I hoped to do by reading the book) was vital, and she wouldn't loan me a dollar because she was "raised Catholic" and "didn't agree with" the ideas in the book I wanted. I tried reason, but when she wouldn't listen to me I decided to act just as childish and refuse to leave the store. I told her she could leave and I could have a friend pick me up, and when she agreed to do this I told her if she'd leave her only son behind at Borders because he didn't believe in her god then she had to examine her priorities. Childish, yes, but eventually she yielded, gave me my dollar and we had an uncomfortable silent car ride home. She still hasn't talked to me and it's been nearly 4 hours.
My questions:
Was this a reasonable protest to her attempts to dissuade me from exploring my beliefs?
Since I know most of my friends have similar beliefs (or rather a lack thereof), has anything similar ever happened to you? Has there ever been friction with friends, parents, or other relatives because you didn't necessarily believe in their god?
I went to the mall with my mom and sister because there has been a dearth of pants for me to wear lately. They all decided to get worn out in the butt at the same time and rip. Normally I don't have much fun shopping, especially with my mom and sister, but for some reason we had fun today, talking a lot more than normal and joking around and stuff.
Then we went to Borders. Normally Borders is much more relaxing to go to with my family because the prospect of getting more great books to read relaxes me and talking with my mom about literature is fun, because I always find out she knows more about it than I think. I got Franny and Zoey, because I don't know what to think about J. D. Salinger after Reading the Catcher in the Rye, which I had mixed feelings about. Then I asked her if I could get one more book, and she happily agreed. One thing my mom has never cringed at spending money on for me is books. I bet I could ask her if she would buy me 20 books at a time and she'd do it.
Not today though. Recently I've been listening to the audio book of Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, but I've found it's hard to comprehend everything, especially the complex thought experiments he posits, without a physical text in front of me. So I wanted to buy it to read along with the audio book and also support him and his ideas, which I agree with. When I showed her The God Delusion, her faced contorted in ugly horror and then she glared at me. "You expect me to pay for THAT?". I did, but only because she told me she would buy me another book. We argued for a minute and then I agreed to pay for it, but she would need to loan me a dollar because the book was 16 dollars and I didn't have enough for tax. Still she refused! Here's a woman I've lived with all my life, who has for my entire life taught me to live without prejudice, telling me that the accumulation of knowledge (for that's all I hoped to do by reading the book) was vital, and she wouldn't loan me a dollar because she was "raised Catholic" and "didn't agree with" the ideas in the book I wanted. I tried reason, but when she wouldn't listen to me I decided to act just as childish and refuse to leave the store. I told her she could leave and I could have a friend pick me up, and when she agreed to do this I told her if she'd leave her only son behind at Borders because he didn't believe in her god then she had to examine her priorities. Childish, yes, but eventually she yielded, gave me my dollar and we had an uncomfortable silent car ride home. She still hasn't talked to me and it's been nearly 4 hours.
My questions:
Was this a reasonable protest to her attempts to dissuade me from exploring my beliefs?
Since I know most of my friends have similar beliefs (or rather a lack thereof), has anything similar ever happened to you? Has there ever been friction with friends, parents, or other relatives because you didn't necessarily believe in their god?