What I don't get about American Christians:
Austria is not the most secular country in the world. Indeed, according to this map (warning: wikipedia. As far as I know, this was coloured in by a demented 6-year old technorat), nearly 50% of us believe in god. More than those go to church ('cause it's the thing to do, particularly in small villages). But never in my life did somebody reference something from the bible to make a point that had nothing to do with religion. But now and again, when aimlessly surfing the internet, I stumble about an otherwise well written, or well thought-out, or just amusing blogpost like this one, and then suddenly there it is. Noah's ark.
In this case, the post is about stuff it took the author a long time to learn, i.e. general life advice, and one of the points made is
Pardon me? Are you telling me that you are comparing a stupid fictional boat (and not very well thought out at that - a bit too small to get two of each kind of animal in there) with the largest passenger steamship of her time?
15. Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.
Stuff like that causes me to immediately classify the author as a crank, i.e. somebody who is prone to believe all manner of things without evidence. Is this bible-quoting thing just an illness of American-Christian fundamentalists, or don't I know the right people to hear it here in Europe? Or maybe it's the internet that brings out the weirdos?
Its that you don't know who to hear it from in Europe! America was founded on the Bible we believe it is a real book and that what is found in there are real events in History.. "HIS" story that is... I will admit that todays Christian does not believe like those who founded this country. And that is to our shame. But I do. God promised to preserve his word and I believe the Bible is Gods Word!
ReplyDeleteNicole, even though I'd dispute almost all of your points (for example, three of your "founding fathers" were atheists, did you know that?), you are of course free to believe what you will. That is kind of the point of the separation of church and state, one of the very founding principles your country is (rightly) proud of: Everybody has his own believes, but you dont bother people with it.
ReplyDeleteYou see, what I never get is the arrogance of all religious people: How can you be so sure that out of the literally tens of thousand of religions out there, yours is the one true one? There is this witty saying that you are an atheist like I am, only I believe in one less god than you do.
Anyway, I'll stop trying to rile you up - I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.