Here’s a little journal entry of mine from last week:
It appears I can’t avoid getting into arguments about supernatural dieties even when I try. So, I had an unfortunate conversation with a Pondicherry shop owner in which he insisted that the Christian god was the correct one. I say unfortunate because any encounter that reminds me of the demon-haunted minds, the shadowy worlds of my fellow humans always weighs heavily on me because I believe such superstitions prevent us from reaching our true potential.
Anyway, he was a very nice man, the owner of the tiny shop where we buy milk and bread. But his first display of ignorance was when he said, “Catholic or Protestant?” (He knew I was a student from the U.S. because he knows Mr Varghese, the guest house caretaker.) For him, is was obvious that all Americans are Christians.
I took a deep breath because I knew the next few minutes would involve some small energy expenditure. “No gods,” I said, “I don’t have any gods or demons.”
“Are they all like that in US?” he asked. Unfortunately I was not quick enough to reply, “No, only some of the more educated people do not worship gods.” But instead I said, “No, mostly Christian, Muslim and Jewish.”
He said, “I don’t wroship any gods, only the god of Jesus Christ.” I didn’t ask this confued man to clarify this particular point. I noticed the Jesus picture, as white/European as ever, that was hanging on the wall of the shop next to the jelly. The half-man, half-god of Christian mythology, he is more powerful than a man but not as powerful as the primary god.
That was when he said, “Well, you are young and that is when you have many thoughts in your head. But someday you’ll realize,” and he pointed upward (to where God lives, I assume). Well yes, sir, I know that for religious people like you, thoughts are to be avoided or contained. Not so for me – I _encourage_ thinking. And what a typically religious display of condescension! I can be condescending, too: you believe in the Chistian god because your parents were Christian. And if they had been Hindu, you would believe in the Hindu gods. I restrained myself from saying this, though.
He then asked, “Why do you not believe in a god?” This question does not make sense to me. Why don’t I believe a teapot revolves around the Sun? Why don’t I believe a bunny rabbit lives in the center of the earth? Because the idea is unsupported by evidence (not to mention absurd). I said, “The search for truth, and no evidence for gods.” He said he believed America existed despite never seeing it, and “such is God,” he said, smiling as though he had just brought me to enlightenment. Yes, there is good reason to believe the US exists. But you probably wouldn’t believe in Atlantis once you had evaluated the evidence for it. And why not believe in _all_ the thousands of gods that have been imagined? An equal amount of “evidence” exists for each and every one of them.
After all this, after knowing my position on this fundamental issue, he had the gall to say, “God bless you” as I walked away with my bag of groceries.
And once again (dammit) I just wasn’t fast enough to ask, “Which god?” and to add with a smile, “May you meet many a lucky leprechaun upon life’s path!”
~Isaac H.
pseudoisaac 